(New York) Like its major competitors, Amazon posted a better-than-expected first quarter, supported by the good performance of advertising and its remote computing business (clouds), even if it shows signs of running out of steam, the group announced on Thursday.
Over the period from January to March, its turnover reached 127.3 billion dollars, up 9% year on year and significantly above the 124.6 billion expected by analysts.
Wall Street welcomed the publication, after its closure, of the Seattle group, whose action was up nearly 7% in electronic trading after the close of trading.
The New York market raised Amazon’s second-quarter revenue forecast to a range of $127 billion to $133 billion, slightly better than analysts’ projections of $129.8 billion.
In the first quarter, revenue growth came from clouds, via the dedicated Amazon Web Services (AWS) subsidiary, which saw its revenues increase by 16% year-on-year, excluding currency effects, although this growth shows a slowdown. From one quarter to another, the turnover of AWS even fell slightly (-0.1%).
Another highlight: the dynamism of advertising, whose revenues rose by 21%, a pace comparable to that of previous quarters.
“This stronger than expected performance from the two key profit centers of AWS and advertising indicates that the company may have raised the bar,” commented Andrew Lipsman, analyst at Insider Intelligence.
These figures compensate for the zero growth in online sales, which have been stalling for more than a year.
Furthermore, “recent cost-cutting measures appear to be producing improvements in profitability,” noted Andrew Lipsman.
Net profit reached $3.1 billion in the first quarter, compared to a net loss of $3.8 billion over the same period last year. Reported per share, data scrutinized by the market, the profit is 31 cents, well above the 21 cents announced by analysts.
“For the first time in several quarters, Amazon finally seems to have some wind at its back,” according to Andrew Lipsman.