Amazon reported fourth-quarter earnings slightly below Wall Street estimates even as sales surged and it reported the fastest growth in its prominent cloud computing business in 13 quarters.
The Seattle-based online behemoth on Thursday reported net income of $21.2 billion, or $1.95 per share, for the three-month period ended Dec. 31. That compares with $20 billion, or $1.86 per share, in the year-ago quarter.
Revenue rose 14% to $213.4 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with $187.8 billion in the year-ago period.
Analysts were expecting $1.97 per share on sales of $211.4 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
Revenue from its cloud service arm called Amazon Web Services increased 24% to $35.6 billion. Analysts were expecting $34.9 billion.
Amazon said it plans to increase capital spending to $200 billion this year from $125 billion as it sees opportunities in artificial intelligence, robots, semiconductors and satellites, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a press release. Wall Street analysts were expecting spending to rise to around $147 billion, according to FactSet.
In the past few months our electric rates went up 14.5%, our heath care costs more than tripled, and grocery and necessities prices have shot way up.
Guess what we’re cutting back on? The kind of stuff Amazon sells.
We’re just starting to see the Trump economy.
We canceled prime. If we really need something from Amazon it’s $35 for free shipping anyways. We partially canceled because it’s all no name cheap garbage. At least some other retailers vet and back their products.