Amazon Earnings Up, Shares Down On Q2 Forecast

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) booked a strong gain in earnings for the first quarter, but a less than stellar forecast for the coming quarter saw AMZN shares head lower.

Amazon reported a 68% gain in first-quarter earnings. with net income of $299 million, or $0.66 a share vs $177 million ($0.41) a share for the same quarter of 2009. Revenue was 46% to $7.13 billion.

Kindle remained Amazon’s top selling product, Other highlights included

* North America segment sales rose 47% to $3.78 billion;
* International segment sales (U.K., German, Japanese, French and Chinese sites) rose 45% to $3.35 billion, or 37% excluding currency.
* Worldwide Media sales grew 26% to $3.43 billion, or up 22% ex-currency;
* Worldwide Electronics & Other General Merchandise sales grew 72% to $3.51 billion, or up 68% ex-currency.
* Amazon Web Services (AWS) lowered pricing for outbound data transfer by up to 40%.

Despite trading to record highs prior to the earnings announcement, the prediction for the quarter ahead didn’t impress; for the June quarter, Amazon said it expects net sales to come in between $6.1 billion and $6.7 billion.

AMZN shares were down 1.57% to $147.98 in after hours trading after being down as much as 6% following the earnings release.