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Amazon Crashes After Missing Top And Bottom Line, Guides Lower
Did the Amazon bubble just pop? Unless Jeff Bezos announces he is working on a space station that just may be the case, because while the company missed both the top and bottom line, and guided lower - traditionally a perfect trifecta to send the stock soaring afterhours - the stock is plunging some 10% after hours, even if it now has a true bargain-basement LTM PE of 672x.
Specifically the Q4 results were as follows:
- Revenue of $25.59 billion, missing expectations of $26.0 billion
- EPS of $0.51, missing expectations of $0.69, and this despite using a far lower tax rate (39.7%), than used a year ago (57.6%)
- Guides Q1 revenue of $18.2 - $19.9 billion, on the low end of the consensus estimate of $19.69 billion
- Guides Q1 Operating Income of ($200)-$200 on expectations of $367.8 million.
Some other observations:
- Worldwide net sales rose 22%: the lowest in year (see chart below), below the 26% in Q3 and below the 23% a year ago
- Total employees rose to 117,300 (!), from 109,800 a quarter ago, and 91,300 a year ago.
Ironically it wasn't all bad, as Operating Income rose to $510 million, above the $490 million expected, and the highest single quarterly Operating Income in over 4 years. This was matched by Net Income of $239 million - the highest since December $416. Perhaps AMZN should have just continued losing money and burning cash, and all would have been well.
Unfortunately, those looking for a margin rebound will have to wait: at 1.0% LTM Operating Margin it has gone exactly nowhere since September 2012 and much lower compared to previous year. This happened even though Q4 operating margin bounced to 2% - the highest since June 2011, driven by the holiday spending season.
Putting it all together and you get something very troubling: the stock, which historically woudl have soared on news as bad as these, is plunging, and was down 10% at last check.
Did the Jeff Bezos "myth" bubble finally pop?
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Droned!!
Bezos jinxed by the Washington Pravda deal...well. every dog has his day
don't worry when Beezer brings out the drones.......you'll buy or else
Not to worry AMZN is a govt stock aka goog ibm ba ect.
Effin BS, my broker told me earnings don't matter.
So what if they lose money on evey sale? THey'll make tn volume.
There are too many people who are a combination of impulsive buyers, on-line shopping addicts, bored out of their minds and broke with too much time on their hands. This is a deadly combination for Amazon and other online retailers as these people order shit and abuse the "free return" policy. The "free return" policy ain't free for the retailer paying for it.
Yes but it just lost what it coveniently gained before earnings announcement (even little less) So they are still 80 cents up on a day on horrible earnings - and be sure that Satan Like Bill Miller with his concentrated position who employes squeeze the shorts in most shitty stock approach will take it up to new highs.
Rallied 30 points up as I was typing - just unbeleivable manipulation in this name.. I won't be surprised if they close it sharply up tomorrow...
The 5% postal rate increase isn't helping, either.
AMZN just needs to accept bitsh!t so that fonestar und his ilk can trade all their tulipcoins for AMZN's merchandise. Will boost revenues multifold. Profit margins? Not so much, but profits are, so old-school and uncool anyway.
delete. double post
Well, if we valued Amazon as a retailer, which it is, and forget for the moment, that it really has no margins...
15 X trailing PE ~ OMFG, under 10 bucks a share!
That can't be right. Someone call the Washington post, and put a spin on this.
It's AMaZiNg!
+1 for the effort.
Do people still read in this country??
Yes,
texts, tweets, and tea leaves, in roughly that order.
I read my horoscope, and I read what Kim K. is doing as I wait in line to buy my hot pockets.
Only users/clicks matter, get with the new world order
amzn being down is one of the seven signs of the apocalypse
MyZone
My wife turned them on to me and they are great, easy to do online business with just like Fedex. Win or lose for them, means lose or win or somebody else.
Don't crow too fast. Often it goes up right away. Other times it waits till the next day to rip the shorts a new one. But always in the end the bull-tards are the ones left crowing. After all, Ben (and now Janet) still has their back. It never was about the fundamentals as ZH knows all to well.
It was up 5% today. It's down 8% right now....Blah. Goog is now up. Barf.
My sentiments exactly. Including day trading, GOOG up 8%, AMZN down 3%, NasCrap up 1.5%. The bull-tards remain firmly in control.
growth and profits are just around the corner!
The more they sell, the more they lose.
Sounds like the Fed, doesn't it?
AMZN didn't miss anything. It was the sell-side estimates that were way off. Financial jargon loves to distort relaity as much as possible.
Yeah, AMZN is right on target. A never ending, never-come-true dream so that nobody ever needs to value the stock on fundamentals. After all, a P/E on dreams and imagination can never bee too high.
Off topic...but there are numerous reports that the snow back east is 'weird'. It doesn't melt, smells funky, actually chars, and 'behaves like styrofoam'. Anyone else catching this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZbdTviosiQ&feature=player_embedded
Well since it hasn't been over 32, for even one minute, the past 7 days...might have something to do with not melting.
or its that damn FUKUSHIMA !
Sublimation
Perhaps it's radioactive fallout from Fukushima.
The snow here in NJ is cold but doesn't burn, and the yellow parts are very tasty. Yum, yum!
Watched your link and tried to burn the snow here (Ontario) but didn't get the same results, the snow melted normally. Intrigued all the same.
Perhaps her house smells like syrofoam. I'm watching it melt right now (in Atlanta).
There's a lot of ice under the snow currently. Trying to make a snowball out of it would just make a slushy mess.
Wow you guys are dumb.....http://youtu.be/jPHkPE8WLKo
The guy who posted that video may be correct but he is a fucking arrogant douchebag
Mark Dice is awesome. He's one of the good guys, trust me. Awesome man on the street video featuring a 1oz gold coin...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndshbH3qZ6Y
Since basic science and math are no longer taught in schools you can see why people would fall for things like this. How else could they sell them on global warming and tax their carbon footprints. Carbon is the basis for life on earth and one of the most abundant elements in the Universe, yet somehow now it's become a plague. I came to the conclusion some people will believe anything as long as it's said in a slow, non-threateing monotone liberal voice, delivery is much more important than facts.
Just wait til these folks learn of the dangers associated with hydrogen hydroxide. Al Gore will go berserk!
2x
Monique says you're dumb.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hirt3N1gwt8
..
this will be green shortly, i hope im wrong, but they always do this
Steve Lesson(CNBC) will be on soon to announce an Obama plan that all Americans must buy everything from Amazon.
What story could 60 minutes possibly dream up to divert attention away from this abortion?
This must be bad news for Gold.
what's not?
Yes, but the stock was already up 5% today, so it's not quite as bad as it seems... See KARL DENNINGER'S take on AMZN in the video Below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqWIS0O2gIk
Music101 - You're posting the same shit on every message board here. I dub thee a SPAMMER
b...but the volume!
I thought they would make up for it with volume!?
In related news.
Nah, the analysts will find a useless metric that was in line like margins after giving away more things for free was -5% and analysts expected -4%. Therefore, good enough to buy the lows. Happens every time.
500 bucks by close tomorrow. Amazon is like one of those zombies in a movie that will not die.
when AMZN is trading at a PE under 50x (and that's very generous), then we can say it has popped.
current PE is about 180x, so we still have at least another 70% down to go.
They are already buying the dip.
I got to find what the GAAP earnings were
I blame the weather. Can I do that?
Sure. The weather, and UPS; all their fault.
Amazon's ride down may have some more to go. Several states, like NC are forcing it to collect their sales tax (NC starts on Feb 1) in exchange for letting them operate warehouses in the state. I just made my last tax-free purchase today.
Precisely.
Amazon is big enough now that every single state is going to go after them.
People will then start to shop elsewhere (Wayfair, NewEgg, etc.).
Taxes equate to a 6%-10% or more loss of profit margin.
Wayfair is pretty good too. Got some good (fiat) deals there.
@DarthVaderMentor
I was going to sarcastically post that with operating margins of 1%, AMZN will have no prob absorbing the sales tax collections. The only competitive advantage of AMZN was the absence of sales taxes.
ETA: I forgot the other competitive advantage of being a non-union shop (for now).
" I just made my last tax-free purchase today."
Don't you know that you owe use tax on your purchase? Nothing is "tax-free." Pay up!
A friendly reminder from your state and local government agencies.
The argument about sales tax seems like a red herring to me. Maybe in the early days the sales tax savings drew people to Amazon but now they shop there for convenience and the customer service. Ordering couldn't be faster or easier and you can do so with confidence that the price is probably good. Customers don't have to waste time driving around, dealing with parking and so on.
Besides Amazon is a tech company that happens to sell books. Their growth is in EC2 and so on. For many companies the web IS Amazon.
Having said all of that sure I agree AMZN is overpriced. I just don't think interstate sales tax laws will do anything (which by the way I consider a violation of the commerce clause)
Amazon began collecting sales tax for the state of California. I don't know what they were thinking - it's 9%, and close to 10% if they are collecting city sales tax too. I don't know if they are collecting the city tax, cuz i've stopped using Amazon. That's huge, and it's not that hard to find online vendors who won't charge sales tax.
Down 12% now.
I think it's worth $50, maybe.
Icahn Tweets to the rescue, quick!
Bubblelicioius
i expect goog to go up every day for the rest of the year, with the occasional 3 dollar loss day,
talk about a fucked up stock, that stock never goes down, and if it god forbid has 1 day down, its erased either afterhours or the next day.
as for amzn, its already coming back a bit.
amzn and goog are worth 200 dollars combined, and i am prob being to nice with that amount.
yup, as i said, it was only a matter of time.
its now green for the day, not as high as it was at its highs of the day, but on my screen for the day, its green.
cant make this shit up
amazon was ok when you didn't pay taxes, but... wtf differentiates it now from a brick and mortar when one wants to get out and about except fo a huge discount on a faux product?
And, they've added so many sub-vendors that you get 4,287 results for a specific product search.
Not to mention that the customer reviews cross different versions of a product (eg. - Book versus DVD, different editions, etc.).
"It's just a flesh wound!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhRUe-gz690
The stock is now postive on the day. This stock is to big. The Fed can not let it sink. It will take every think with it. Numbers miss and the guide lower..look for it to beup huge tomorrow.
This stock is one big joke was kicking myself for getting out of shorts in 380'S yesterday after seeing 359 AH. Just checked it again up to 390 are you kidding me? Miss , miss guide lower. The more people they sign up for Prime the more money they lose. Probably see 420-450 before next earnings. Total joke. Don't even get me started on Pandora, FB and Twitter.
Since Amazon (0 profits) and Housing are 98.ass% of the US economy....can we expect a stock exchange bloodbath tomorrow?
Sky is falling Sky is fallin. Ah wait it's only down 5% now. I'm sorry I normally worship ZH but I think you guys who are bearish on AMZN are going off the deep end on this one.
Seriously? Lowest margins in the history of this galaxy. It's good for consumers, buy stuff cheap. They won't ever be able to raise prices.
they will never be able to grow into this multiple. never. buyable at 20, 30, maybe 40 times training EPS.
It's a price action bubble. One of the greatest of the greater fool plays that exist today. If the stock traded 90% below current prices it would still have twice the multiple of SP500.
if all they did were sell books and barbie dolls I'd agree. You forget they have AWS/EC2 as well.
They are not wrong about reality. Only wrong about the non-reality that is the stock market. Amazon couldn't earn a profit with a 6-10% price advantage over all other large retailers. How could it possibly get better for them? What is the future in the eyes of the Amazon believer? No stores, only internet and mega-warehouses with slave picker drones? Where will I see and feel a product? Get a real life demo? I like Amazon, but Bezos would need to become ruler of the universe to justify the current stock valuation.
Amazon ca has been good for me as I pay taxes no matter where I shop. They made some money from my CD orders and I've saved some money compared to HMV which is the only other seller in town. I had no idea Amazon had a free return policy.
They are going to use Drones for deliveries ha ha the jokes on us. That shyster Beezos will go down in history alright.
Exactly, you want to know where the QE cash is going? Look no further!