Amazon shares soar on profit jolt
Amazon shares jumped to a record high in after-hours trading in the United States, and New Zealand’s retail association has warned local stores not to be complacent about its future impact.
Amazon shares rose 6 per cent to a high of US$1477 (NZ$1995) after it reported a fourth-quarter profit that was more than double analysts’ expectations and a 38 per cent jump in its quarterly sales to more than US$60 billion.
The share-price jump reversed a 4 per cent decline in Amazon’s shares during normal trading hours on the Nasdaq exchange overnight on Thursday, before the profit announcement.
Amazon’s launch into the Australian market so far appears to have proved something of an anticlimax. The company opened a distribution centre in South Melbourne in December that is the size of three rugby pitches, but doesn’t seem to have bowled over Australian consumers with the range and prices of goods.
Many goods on the Australian website are marked as not available for shipment to New Zealand.
Retail NZ spokesman Greg Harford said the opening of the Melbourne warehouse hadn’t had a big impact in New Zealand yet.
But he said local retailers could not be complacent, and expected Amazon would open more centres in the region over time.
Amazon listed its Australian launch as the 23rd item in a series of ‘‘highlights’’ for the quarter and it was not discussed during a conference call on the company’s results hosted by chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky yesterday.
Chief executive Jeff Bezos made most mention of its Alexa ‘‘intelligent personal assistant’’, which goes on sale with its Echo speaker in New Zealand this month.
‘‘Our 2017 projections for Alexa were very optimistic, and we far exceeded them,’’ Bezos said.
Amazon’s quarterly profit of US$1.9b for the three months to the end of December was up from US$749 million in the same period in 2016, bolstered by a US$789m gain from US tax changes.