Shares of e-commerce giant Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) gained in after-hours trading after the firm reported its Q1 results. Earnings per share came in at $0.98, which beat analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.84 per share. Sales increased by 13% year-over-year, with revenue hitting $143.3 billion. This beat analysts’ expectations of $142.5 billion.
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The various segments of the company witnessed notable growth over the past year. North America’s sales climbed to $86.3 billion, which was a 12% increase from the previous year. In the International segment, sales reached $31.9 billion, a year-over-year growth of 10%. Additionally, the AWS segment experienced a 17% increase in sales, which equaled a total of $25 billion.
Interestingly, a quick look at Amazon’s website traffic would’ve predicted its impressive year-over-year growth. In fact, website traffic in Q1 2024 significantly outperformed the comparison period from 2023 (the grey line).
Looking forward, management now expects revenue and operating income for Q2 2024 to be in the ranges of $144.0 billion to $149 billion and $10 billion to $14 billion, respectively. For reference, analysts were expecting $150.1 billion in revenue.
Is Amazon a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on AMZN stock based on 42 Buys assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 76% rally in its share price over the past year, the average AMZN price target of $213.74 per share implies 18.8% upside potential. However, it’s worth noting that estimates will likely change following today’s earnings report.
