Amazon.com Inc. on Thursday beat analysts’ estimates for fourth-quarter revenue, as its efforts to speed up delivery helped attract more shoppers during the holiday season, sending its shares up 10 per cent.
Retailers usually generate a majority of their annual sales and profit during the holiday period.
The company forecast net sales in the range of US$69 billion and US$73 billion for the first quarter. Analysts were expecting revenue of US$71.65 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Net sales in North America, its biggest market, jumped 21.6 per cent to US$53.67 billion during the fourth quarter. Analysts had expected revenue of US$52.23 billion from the segment.
Revenue from its lucrative cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services (AWS), which sells data storage and computing power in the cloud, surged 34 per cent to US$9.95 billion. Analysts had expected US$9.84 billion.
Amazon’s total operating expenses surged 21.8 per cent during the quarter to US$83.56 billion.
Net sales rose 21 per cent to US$87.44 billion in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 , beating estimates of US$86.02 billion.
© Thomson Reuters 2020
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