Amazon Beats the Street

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) posted third-quarter earnings that beat the Street's views, while offering fourth-quarter revenue guidance that was generally above expectations.

The online bookseller forecast fourth-quarter sales in the range of $12 billion to $13.3 billion. The prediction was in-line with the expectations, as analysts had forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $12.30 billion.

The e-commerce giant reported net income rose 16% to $231 million, or 51 cents a share, up from last year’s profit of $199 million, or 45 cents a share.

Net sales improved 39% to $7.56 billion, compared with year-ago sales of $5.45 billion.  Operating margin came in at 3.5%, down from 4.6% in the year-ago quarter.

The results topped the Street’s earnings-per-share and revenue view. Analysts had predicted earnings of 48 cents a share on revenue of $7.35 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

"Every year for the last 15 years we've worked to improve the things customers care about, and this year is no exception," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, in a statement. "This holiday season we'll have the best prices, the biggest selection, the highest in-stock, and the fastest delivery in our history."

The company boasted that its US Kindle store now lists more than 720,000 books as of the end of the third quarter, and said it began shipping its new generation Kindle with an improved electronic-ink screen, smaller body, more storage and battery power for $139, with a 3G version for $189.

Shares of Amazon.com rose $6.30, or nearly 4%, in Thursday’s session, closing at $164.97. The stock was down $6.47, or 3.9%, in after-hours trading, upon release of results. Year-to-date, the stock is up 22.64%.

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