Coming out of the pandemic is not good news for Amazon.
The end of confinements, the resumption of a more normal life for millions of its customers, now less dependent on home deliveries, affects the e-commerce giant.
Quarterly losses of $3.8 billion that shock its shareholders.
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The firm's sales growth was just 7% during the period, the slowest pace in nearly 20 years.
Amazon's turnover thus reached 116.4 billion dollars.
Amazon is, moreover, a victim of the ills plaguing other companies in these troubled times, even the most successful ones like Apple: its supply chains are still disrupted, its labor costs are climbing and inflation is coming. spoil the favorable context from which it has long enjoyed.
Wall Street's disappointment is even stronger because Andy Jassy, the successor to Jeff Bezos at the head of Amazon, does not yet rule out further losses for the current quarter.
“
The pandemic and the war in Ukraine that followed,
“, he summarizes.
The stock price tumbled more than 9%
The forecast range it announces is between a billion dollars in losses from April to June and three billion dollars in profits.
However in 2021, at the same time, Amazon generated 7.7 billion dollars in profits.
Amazon is only expecting revenue of between $116 billion and $121 billion in the second quarter.
Wall Street was hoping for more than $125 billion.
In this context, the share price tumbled more than 9% in the over-the-counter market, after the Nasdaq closed on Thursday evening.
At Friday morning's open, the stock price is expected to take an equivalent plunge, bringing the Amazon empire's capitalization back to its June 2020 level.
All is not black, however.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), the group subsidiary, a pioneer in cloud computing services, continues to play its role as a locomotive.
It reports a new jump of 37% of its quarterly turnover to more than 18 billion dollars.
Additionally, Amazon is proud of its performance in digital advertising, a new area that puts it in direct competition with Google and Meta Platforms.
The volume of activity in this niche has increased by 23% over the past year.
Amazon has nearly reached $8 billion in revenue there.
The other source of consolation is that Amazon's first quarterly losses since 2015 largely relate to a $3.8 billion accounting charge necessitated by the writedown of its stake in electric carmaker Rivian.
Ford, another investor in Rivian, sees its quarterly results weighed down by the discomfiture of the manufacturer who dreams of one day competing with Tesla.
“
Our teams are totally focused on improving productivity and lowering costs in our logistics network.
We know how to do it, we've done it before
“says Andy Jassy.
It is true that the weaker pressure of demand, particularly in North America, means that Amazon no longer needs to invest in new warehouses for the moment.
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The company intends to focus on better management of its stocks and hopes that its suppliers, particularly in Asia, overcome their problems of production and delivery of goods.
Brian Olsavsky, Amazon's chief financial officer, estimates the company incurred $6 billion in additional costs in the quarter, due to lost productivity, price hikes on goods purchased, where its warehouses ended up in excess of capacity.
