Amazon Reports Second-Quarter Loss

Leading online retailer

released its fiscal second-quarter earnings results after the closing bell on Thursday. The company reported a small loss compared to analysts' consensus estimates calling for a small profit in the quarter. Amazon also provided guidance for the upcoming third-quarter. Sales rose 22 percent, but came in slightly below Wall Street expectations. In late trading, the stock was down a little more than 1 percent to $300.00.

"We're so grateful to our customers for their response to Kindle devices and our digital ecosystem. This past quarter, our top 10 selling items worldwide were all digital products – Kindles, Kindle Fire HDs, accessories and digital content,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “The Kindle service keeps getting better. The Kindle Store now offers millions of titles including more than 350,000 exclusives that you won't find anywhere else. Prime Instant Video has surpassed 40,000 titles, including many premium exclusives like Downton Abbey and Under the Dome. And we've added more than a thousand books, games, educational apps, movies and TV shows to Kindle FreeTime Unlimited, bringing together in one place all the types of content kids and parents love.”

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Amazon.com reported a loss of $7.0 million or $0.02 per share, compared to a profit of $7.0 million or $0.01 per share, in last year's corresponding period. This was below analysts' consensus estimates calling for a profit of $0.05 per share. Sales in the quarter were up 22 percent to $15.70 billion from $12.83 billion a year ago. This also missed Wall Street consensus estimates of $15.73 billion. Looking ahead, the company said that it expects to report a loss of $440 million to $65 million for the fiscal third-quarter on revenue of $15.45 billion to $17.15 billion. Currently, Wall Street is modeling Q3 sales of $16.98 billion for the online retailer.