Amazon fourth-quarter earnings fall short
The company's stock falls more than 8 percent after it reports its latest earnings, which disappoint Wall Street despite a solid rise in revenue.
Amazon fell short of investors' expectations Thursday when it reported earnings of 51 cents-per-share and a revenue of $25.59 billion in the fourth quarter. The company's stock was down more than 8 percent shortly after the news hit.
Wall Street was expecting earnings of 67 cents a share and a revenue of $26.05 billion.
It seems no matter how much money Amazon spends, investors are still optimistic. In December, the company's stock hit $400 for the first time, despite reporting quarterly losses previously. It's been able to maintain its stock price since, but it's unclear if investors will stick it out this time.
Amazon's revenue for the entire year was $74.45 billion, a 22 percent increase from 2012. Of course, operating costs also increased, but only by 10 percent. Amazon's spending went from $676 million in 2012 to $745 million in 2013.
There's plenty for Amazon to celebrate. Earlier this month, the company marked a record year for its Marketplace merchants, who sold more than a billion units globally in 2013. The company also announced a record-setting holiday season for Amazon Prime, Amazon's subscription service, and highlighted the long list of expansions for its AWS cloud service.
The company pointed out many of its milestones for the year, with CEO Jeff Bezos continuing to push its latest buzzworthy investments in customer service -- the Mayday tech support button in the U.S. and Sunday package delivery in select U.S. cities.
"It's a good time to be an Amazon customer," he said in a press release. Does he think it's also a great time to be an Amazon investor? We'll see if the company reveals any more information at its 2 p.m. PT earnings call.
Updated, 1:43 p.m. PT: Added more information from Amazon's news release.