Amazon Results Miss Estimates

(RTTNews) - Online retailer Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) said Thursday after the markets closed that its fourth quarter profit more than doubled from last year, as sales jumped 20% amid a strong holiday season.

However, the company's quarterly earnings per share came in well below analysts' lofty expectations as did its quarterly sales. At the same time, the company warned of a possible operating loss for the current quarter.

Amazon shares are currently losing 4.47% in after hours trading after closing the day's regular trading session at $403.01, up $18.81 or 4.90%. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $245.75 to $408.06.

North America segment sales, representing the company's U.S. and Canadian sites, rose 26% to $15.3 billion in the fourth quarter.

International segment sales, representing the company's U.K., German, Japanese, French, Chinese, Italian and Spanish sites, grew 13% to $10.3 billion.

Worldwide media sales for the quarter increased 11% to $7.2 billion, while worldwide electronics and other general merchandise sales surged 23% to $17.1 billion.

For the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2013, the Seattle, Washington-based company reported net income of $239 million or $0.51 per share, compared to $97 million or $0.21 per share for the year-ago quarter.

On average, 39 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.66 per share for the fourth quarter.

Net sales for the fourth quarter rose 20% to $25.59 billion from $21.27 billion in the same quarter last year. Forty analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $26.06 billion for the fourth quarter.

Total operating expenses jumped 20% to $25.1 billion.

Looking forward, the company forecasts first quarter net sales in the range of $18.2 billion to $19.9 billion. Analysts currently expect the company to post revenue of $19.67 billion for the first quarter.

The company also forecast first quarter operating results between a loss of $200 million to profit of $200 million.