Earnings Reports for July 26
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Amazon Beats Estimates by 2 Cents
Amazon.com Inc. beat Wall Street’s estimates for second-quarter earnings. The Seattle Internet retailer said sales grew 84 percent from the same period a year ago. The company also had an 32 percent increase inlosses. The company lost $89 million, or 33 cents per share, onsales of $578 million.
The earnings report was released after the close of trading on Wall Street. Shares of Amazon.com closed at $36.06¼, down $1.56¼, onthe Nasdaq Stock Market.
The company said that its U.S. book, music and video divisionswere all profitable in the quarter, posting just over $10 millionin gross profits. Amazon.com’s electronics division also sawgrowth, though the company did not immediately quantify it.
“While we continue to see improvements in all our businesses,we are especially pleased with the profitability in our U.S. Books,Music and Video group and the unusual growth in our Electronicsstore,” said Amazon.com chairman Jeff Bezos, who said thecompany was on target for its year 2000 objectives. Answering critics who say the e-commerce giant will run out ofmoney before the end of the year, Amazon.com Chief FinancialOfficer Warren Jensen said the company had $908 million on hand atthe end of the quarter and should have more than $1 billion byyear’s end.
“I don’t see anything here that falls under the heading of badnews,” said J.P. Morgan analyst Tom Wyman. “
The company, which gained nearly 3 million new customers in thequarter, experienced only a modest gain in sales compared to thefirst quarter. The second quarter is, however, considered theslowest time of year for most retailers.
And losses were down from the first quarter of this year, whenthe company lost 35 cents per share. Analysts had hoped to see sucha decrease, looking for a sign that the company would eventuallybecome profitable.
Bezos and other company officials said Amazon.com would not beprofitable before 2002 at the earliest.
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Drug Sales Give Amgen a Boost
Amgen Inc.’s second quarterearnings rose 13 percent on improving sales of its mainstay kidneydialysis and chemotherapy drug Epogen, the biotechnology companysaid. Amgen earned $303 million, or 28 cents per share, up from $268million, or 25 cents per share in the same period a year ago. Theresults were a penny better than Wall Street forecasts, accordingto analysts surveyed by First Call/Thompson Financial.
Sales rose 11 percent to $914 million.
For the six-month period Amgen earned $568.8 million, or 52cents per share, up from $514.8 million, or 48 cents per share, ayear earlier.
The second-quarter increase came despite spending on the launchof several new drugs over the next two or three years, said KevinSharer, Amgen’s president and chief executive officer.
Sales of Epogen increased 15 percent to $493 million. Epogenstimulates red blood cell production in chemotherapy and kidneydialysis patients.
Sales of Neupogen, another longtime moneymaker for Amgen, roseonly 2 percent during the quarter. Sales were hurt by lowwholesaler inventories and unfavorable foreign exchange rates, thecompany said. Neupogen boosts the production of white blood cells.
