Amazon.com Inc.'s stock surged nearly 5% in after-hours trading on Thursday following the disclosure of the company's Q4 results, which exceeded Wall Street's predictions.
Based in Seattle, Washington, Amazon announced a fourth-quarter income of $10.62 billion or $1.00 per share, a significant raise from the previous year's $278 million or $0.76 per share.
Included in the Q4 2023 profits is a pre-tax valuation loss of $0.1 billion from non-operating income derived from the common stock investment in Rivian Automotive, Inc. This is compared to a pre-tax valuation loss of $2.3 billion from the same investment in Q4 2022.
The average prediction of 38 experts surveyed by Thomson Reuters anticipated an earning of $0.80 per share for the quarter.
Amazon's overall revenue during the quarter climbed 14% to $170.0 billion from $149.2 billion in the previous year. This surpassed analysts' average revenue forecast of $166.21 billion.
"This Q4 marked a record-setting holiday shopping season and confidently concluded a strong 2023 for Amazon," said Amazon's CEO, Andy Jassy, "Our satisfaction lies in ongoing innovation and upgrades in customer experience throughout our business divisions, apart from significant revenue, operating income, and free cash flow progress."
North American sales showed a 13% increase, rounding out at $105.5 billion, while international sales demonstrated an impressive 17% rise, summing up to $40.2 billion. The company’s cloud service division, Amazon Web Services’ revenue also went up by 13%, reaching $24.2 billion.
As for the first quarter projections, the company expects its revenue to range between $138.0 billion and $143.5 billion. In comparison, analysts have assessed an estimated revenue of $142.13 billion.
The closing trading rate of Amazon on Thursday was $159.28 on the Nasdaq, showing an increase of $4.08 or 2.63%. Following the disclosure of Q4 results, the stock further escalated by $7.57 or 4.75% in after-hours trading.
