(San Francisco) Amazon posted first-quarter revenue up 7% to US$116.4 billion, in line with its and market expectations, but widespread cost increases forced it to announce weaker than expected sales forecasts for the current quarter.
Updated yesterday at 5:21 p.m.
The action of the online sales giant fell about 8% during electronic trading after the stock market closed on Thursday.
For the period from April to June, Amazon expects revenues of between 116 and 121 billion US, a range well below the 125.3 billion expected by the consensus of analysts FactSet.
“It’s been a tough quarter for Amazon,” commented Andrew Lipsman of eMarketer. “All essential activities are going in the wrong direction,” he acknowledged.
In particular, he pointed to slower growth in trade, which is here to stay. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon hosted a second Prime Day [opération de soldes annuelle] in October this year to generate additional revenue,” he added.
“The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have created unusual problems for growth,” said Andy Jassy, the group’s boss, quoted in the results press release.
He mentioned the economic context – inflation and supply difficulties – which weighs on the activities of the sprawling company.
Its operating profit, a key indicator of profitability, was halved to 3.7 billion US for the period from January to March.
But, on the other hand, Amazon no longer needs to build new warehouses or recruit with a vengeance, assured the leader: “Our teams are totally focused on improving productivity and lowering costs. in our logistics network. We know how to do it, we have done it before. »
Delivery speeds have returned to levels close to pre-pandemic levels in early 2020, he also said.
As retail sales suffer from inflation and shortages, AWS, its cloud computing service, generated US 18.4 billion in first quarter revenue (+ 36%) in one year, and an operating profit of 6 .5 billion.
AWS leads the industry with 33% of global cloud spending at the end of 2021, ahead of Microsoft’s Azure (22%) and Google Cloud (9%), according to research firm Canalys.
In all, Amazon lost $3.8 billion in the first quarter (compared to net profit of $8 billion a year ago) on a loss on its investment in electric car maker Rivian.
It’s the first time Amazon has posted a net quarterly loss since 2015.