Amazon.com's third quarter fell short of expectations, and the company's outlook also was light.
For the third quarter, which ended September 30, Amazon reported earnings of $63 million, or 14 cents a share, down from $231 million, or 51 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue in the third quarter surged 44 percent, to $10.88 billion.
However, Wall Street was expecting earnings of 24 cents a share on revenue of $10.95 billion. Analysts were expecting a margin hit, as Amazon invests in its infrastructure and rolls out low-price Kindles.
As for the fourth-quarter outlook, Amazon projected revenue between $16.45 billion and $18.65 billion. Wall Street was looking for revenue of $18.15 billion. Amazon projected an operating loss of $200 million to a profit of $250 million. Wall Street was looking for a profit of $487 million.
Coming off the quarterly disappointments from Netflix and Apple, investors were in no mood for Amazon's miss. Shares were whacked after-hours.
This story was first published at ZDNet's Between the Lines under the headline "Amazon's third quarter misses mark; Outlook sluggish."