Amazon and Apple raked in tens of billions of dollars in revenue in the last quarter, but the two tech and electronics giants are seeing their growth suffer from the same ills as the rest of the economy: hiring difficulties and shortages semiconductors.
The results of the two American groups, published Thursday, disappointed investors, and their securities each lost more than 3% during electronic trading after the close of the New York Stock Exchange.
Amazon, which is struggling to hire up to its needs, reported third-quarter revenue of $ 110.8 billion (+ 15%), in line with its expectations, but not those of analysts who expected more than 111.6 billion.
The leader of the online commerce has generated “only” $ 3.2 billion in net profit, a figure that suffers from the unfavorable comparison with last year, when it had tripled its profits over one year to 6.3 billion, thanks to the health crisis and an annual sales operation.
In its press release, the American group highlights its many investments, stressing that it has “almost doubled its warehouse network since the start of the pandemic”.
At the end of September, nearly 1.5 million people worked for Amazon around the world, 30% more than a year ago, and the firm continues to hire hard to meet the ever-weakening demand. not, despite the lifting of containment measures in many countries.
Lack of humans and fleas
But the tensions in the American labor market are slowing it down.
“In the fourth quarter, we expect several billion in additional costs for our sales to consumers business,” Amazon warned, citing “lack of manpower, rising wages, global supply issues. and rising transport costs ”.
The Seattle group (northwestern United States) announced ten days ago its intention to recruit 150,000 seasonal workers for the holiday season, in addition to 165,000 hires already announced in September. It offers high hiring bonuses.
The price of oil and the shortage of electronic components are also weighing on its activities, as on those of Apple.
The California-based firm estimates that it lost about $ 6 billion in revenue from July to September due to “larger-than-expected supply constraints,” CEO Tim Cook said on the results conference call.
In detail, the apple brand has been hit by “shortages of silicone”, an essential element in the manufacture of electronic chips, which affect the entire consumer electronics sector, as well as “related disruptions coronavirus ”in the group’s subcontracting factories in South-East Asia.
“We are still living in unprecedented times,” said Tim Cook.
Soft forecasts, high expectations
He expects sales losses in the current quarter, the holiday season, to be greater than those recorded this summer.
In total, revenue stood at $ 83.3 billion, up 29%, driven by iPhone sales.
Sales of the flagship device jumped 47% year-on-year. Over its entire 2020-2021 fiscal year (October to September), Apple sold smartphones worth $ 191.9 billion, by far the record, and nearly a third more than in its last exercise before the pandemic.
Figures that prove that demand remains strong, commented analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush, optimistic about Apple’s prospects for the end of the year and beyond.
At Amazon, CFO Brian Olsavsky told the analysts conference that costs and recruiting issues cost the group about $ 2 billion this summer, and could double in the current quarter.
He still expects sales of between 130 and 140 billion dollars for the last quarter of the year (ie growth of between 4 and 12% over one year).
“These soft forecasts would be more worrying if Amazon was not used to performing beyond expectations during the holidays,” responded Andrew Lipsman of the firm eMarketer.
The world leader in the cloud (remote computing) can also count on this activity made fundamental by the pandemic: its AWS subsidiary saw its revenues increase by 39% over one year in the last quarter, exceeding $ 16 billion.