Amazon reports Q1 results
Amazon’s net sales increased 9% to $127.4 billion in the first quarter, compared with $116.4 billion in the first quarter 2022. Excluding the $2.4 billion unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 11% compared with the same period in the prior year.
Amazon's North America segment sales increased 11% year-over-year to $76.9 billion.
Amazon also reported that its international segment sales increased 1% year-over-year to $29.1 billion, or increased 9% excluding changes in foreign exchange rates.
AWS segment sales increased 16% year-over-year to $21.4 billion.
Amazon's operating income increased to $4.8 billion in the first quarter, compared with $3.7 billion in the first quarter of 2022. First quarter 2023 operating income includes approximately $.5 billion of charges related to estimated severance costs.
Amazon's North America segment operating income was $.9 billion, compared with an operating loss of $1.6 billion in Q1 2022.
The company's international segment's operating loss was $1.2 billion, compared with an operating loss of $1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2022.
Amazon's AWS segment operating income was $5.1 billion, compared with operating income of $6.5 billion in the prior year period.
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Amazon's net income was $3.2 billion in the first quarter, or 31 cents per diluted share, compared with net loss of $3.8 billion, or 38 cents per diluted share, in Q1 2022. All share and per share information for comparable prior year periods throughout this release have been retroactively adjusted to reflect the 20-for-1 stock split effected on May 27, 2022, Amazon said.
First quarter 2023 net income includes a pre-tax valuation loss of $.5 billion included in non-operating expense from the common stock investment in Rivian Automotive, compared to a pre-tax valuation loss of $7.6 billion from the investment in first quarter 2022.
Operating cash flow increased 38% to $54.3 billion for the trailing 12 months, compared with $39.3 billion for the trailing 12 months ended March 31, 2022.
“There’s a lot to like about how our teams are delivering for customers, particularly amidst an uncertain economy,” said Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO. “Our Stores business is continuing to improve the cost to serve in our fulfillment network while increasing the speed with which we get products into the hands of customers (we expect to have our fastest Prime delivery speeds ever in 2023)."
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Jassy continued, "Our advertising business continues to deliver robust growth, largely due to our ongoing machine learning investments that help customers see relevant information when they engage with us, which in turn delivers unusually strong results for brands. And, while our AWS business navigates companies spending more cautiously in this macro environment, we continue to prioritize building long-term customer relationships both by helping customers save money and enabling them to more easily leverage technologies like large language models and generative AI with our uniquely cost-effective machine learning chips (“Trainium” and “Inferentia”), managed large language models (“Bedrock”), and AI code companion CodeWhisperer. We like the fundamentals we’re seeing in AWS, and believe there’s much growth ahead.”
In releasing its second quarter 2023 guidance, Amazon said it expects net sales to be between $127 billion and $130 billion, or to grow between 5% and 10% compared with second quarter 2022. This guidance anticipates an unfavorable impact of approximately 30 basis points from foreign exchange rates, the company said.
The retailer's operating income is expected to be between $2 billion and $5.5 billion, compared with $3.3 billion in second quarter 2022.