Amazon.com Slams The Doubters

Amazon.com (AMZN-NASDAQ) earnings came in at $0.26 EPS and $3.2 Billion in revenues versus estimates of $0.15 and $2.93 Billion; please keep in mind that the tax rate being much lower made the difference: 23% versus 47%.  Next quarter guidance: $2.7 to $2.85 Billion revenues versus $2.69 Billion estimates.  Fiscal guidance: Revenues $13.4 to $14 Billion versus $13.37 Billion estimates.

To top it off, the company is authorizing a $500M share buyback, and shares are trading up 9% at $48.75 in after-hours trading based on the earnings and guidance.  This puts it right in-line with the 3-year high and is a new 52-week high; looks like Cramer was wrong on this as he is constantly against Amazon.com.  With the valuations where they are, you always to watch out in the morning for "Valuation Downgrades" or "Price Targets Met & Surpassed."  This is probably going to be good enough for the Bezos laugh on all the media outlets tomorrow; maybe he’s spending less time building space ships and more time running the show.

Below are the full highlights if you wish to read them…..

Jon C. Ogg
April 24, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Highlights

• North America segment sales, representing the Company’s U.S.        and Canadian sites, were $1.62 billion, up 30% from first        quarter 2006.
• International segment sales, representing the Company’s U.K.,        German, Japanese, French and Chinese sites, were $1.39        billion, up 35% from first quarter 2006. Excluding the        favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign        exchange rates throughout the quarter, International net sales        growth was 27%.
• Worldwide Media grew 26% to $1.99 billion in first quarter        2007, compared to $1.58 billion in first quarter 2006.
• Worldwide Electronics & Other General Merchandise grew 48% to        $947 million in first quarter 2007, and increased to 31% of        worldwide net sales compared with 28% in first quarter 2006.
• Amazon Enterprise Solutions Europe and leading U.K. retailer        Marks & Spencer launched a leading-edge multi-channel        e-commerce solution, including website        (www.marksandspencer.com), phone catalog, customer support        applications and point-of-sale system integration using the        proven technology and expertise of Amazon.
• Amazon Europe launched a Sports & Leisure store on its        amazon.co.uk website, with thousands of products to choose        from in categories like fitness, team sports, outdoor sports,        clothing and accessories, footwear and more.
• Amazon Europe launched a Toys store on its amazon.fr website,        offering customers a selection of thousands of items from        well-known brands, including Hasbro, Mattel and LEGO.
• Over 240,000 developers have registered to use Amazon Web        Services, up greater than 50% year-over-year. Additionally,        just over one year after introducing Amazon S3, a simple        storage service for software developers, over 5 billion data        objects are stored using this web service.
• Amazon’s Japan website launched the Merchants@ technology,        which enables larger, branded businesses to offer their        selection of new products on www.amazon.co.jp.
• Amazon Business Solutions expanded its Fulfillment by Amazon        program in the U.S. by enabling multi-channel order        fulfillment for third parties.
• The Company launched "Amazon Unbox on TiVo," available to over        1.5 million broadband-ready TiVo boxes and offering        subscribers a great way to find, download and watch on their        televisions thousands of movies and TV shows available through        Amazon Unbox.