Amazon is one of the biggest online presences and their retail arm is certainly a powerhouse aspect which helps fuel and drive the company’s additional interests and other divisions. As a result, when Amazon do release their more recent figures and numbers, much of the market listens with interest. This is exactly what has now happened today with Amazon now announcing their latest earnings which are relative to the fourth quarter of 2015, ending December 31st.
In terms of the good news, Amazon has today announced that sales for the fourth quarter totaled $35.75 billion. This was a significant increase from its previous earnings for the same quarter of the year before which totaled $29.3 billion, a difference which represents a 22-percent increase. This resulted in the company declaring profits for the quarter of $482 million, again, up from $214 million for the same quarter of the previous year. On the face of it, this is the largest quarterly profit the company has ever declared. Not to mention, Amazon also announced that they had passed the $100 billion sales for the year, with the 2015 total equaling $107 billion. This was a 20-percent increase on the previous year in which Amazon amassed $89 billion in sales. So all in all, positive results.
However, it would seem that in spite of reaching new heights, the figures did not satisfy analysts who had predicted that Amazon would do better than they have announced. According to the details, Wall Street had predicted that Amazon were likely to announces sales much closer to the $36 billion market and had expected profits to be somewhere in the region of $754 million. Instead, and as a result of the figures which have now been announced, they were considered to be disappointing and below expectations. A view which has seen Amazon’s shares drop by 10-15% during after hours trading. While this might be seen as a disappointing quarter, it is only disappointing when compared to expectations. Amazon has announced an extremely successful year and fourth quarter and one which does eclipse 2014 on all fronts. Albeit, 2014, Amazon did post some major losses and ones which had been somewhat attributed to the poor sales of their now infamous Fire Phone.