LONDON (Brand Republic) - Amazon.com beat analysts’ expectations with a narrowed first-quarter loss, and said it was on track to reach profitability by the end of the year.
The company’s pro-forma operating loss was $49m (£34.14m), or 21 cents a share, compared with $99m (£68.98m), or 35 cents a share, for the same period last year. This beat analysts’ estimates of 24 cents a share.
Special charges, including restructuring and acquisition costs and losses from its internet investments, brought the net loss to $234.1m (£163.12m), compared with $308.4m (£214.9m) a year earlier.
Revenue rose by 22% to $700m (£487.77m), and its gross profit margin jumped from 22% to 26%. While sales of books, music and videos showed weak growth of 2%, this was offset by strong sales in its electronics division.
The results have gone some way to allay concerns, raised earlier this year, about the company’s financial state, including speculation that the company was going out of business.
Warren Jenson, Amazon’s chief financial officer, said, “We are on track to reach our objective of pro-forma operating profitability in the coming December quarter.”
Its method of financial reporting was also greeted with expert approval, as it has been previously criticised in the past for leaving out details of its pro-forma operations.
Amazon’s chief executive Jeff Bezos said during an analysts’ conference call that the company planned to expand its product categories this year, with partnerships similar to the one with Toys R Us.
Details were not discussed, but he said the company was talking to a number of potential partners in some “attractive” categories.
www.amazon.com