Amazon posts largest ever profit on sales boost
BENGALURU/NEW DELHI: Amazon.com Inc. on Thursday reported a profit near $2 billion, the largest in its history, as the online retailer drew millions of new customers to its Prime fastshipping club for the holiday season, and as changes to US tax law added to its bottom line.
Seattle-based Amazon is using fast shipping, television shows exclusive to its website and forays into new technology, such as its voice-controlled Alexa devices, to attract highspending Prime members.
Amazon said price cuts at Whole Foods Market, which it acquired for $13.7 billion last year, are helping it win grocery sales, too.
The world’s largest online retailer said net income more than doubled to $1.86 billion, or $3.75 per share in the fourth quarter ended December 31.
Its profit also received a provisional $789 million boost from the US Republican tax bill passed in December.
Analysts on average were expecting just $1.85 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. “This was another blow-out quarter for Amazon,” said GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives.
Amazon said India continues to be a “good story” for the US e-tailing giant, even as its losses from its international operations widened to $919 million for the December 2017 quarter.
“India continues to be a good story for us. We feel that it’s had a lot of growth in the past year. In fact, more Prime members joined India’s Prime programme in the first year than we’ve seen in any other country in the history of the world, our world,” Amazon senior vicepresident and chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky said during an investor call.