Amazon Posts Surprise Quarterly Loss

(RTTNews) - Online retailer Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) said Thursday after the markets closed that it swung to a second quarter loss, as higher spending on expansion plans more than offset a 22% sales growth.

The quarterly loss also came as a surprise to analysts who were expected the company to report a profit. The company's quarterly revenue also fell shy of analysts' forecast.

"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.

Amazon shares are currently losing 2.74% in after hours trading after closing the day's regular trading session at $303.40, up $4.46 or 1.49%. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $214.95 to $309.39.

North America segment sales, representing the company's U.S. and Canadian sites, rose 30% to $9.5 billion in the second quarter.

International segment sales, representing the company's U.K., German, Japanese, French, Chinese, Italian and Spanish sites, grew 13% to $6.2 billion.

For the second quarter, worldwide media sales increased 11% to $4.4 billion, while worldwide electronics and other general merchandise sales surged 30% to $10.4 billion.

For the second quarter ended June 30, 2013, the Seattle, Washington-based company reported a net loss of $7 million or $0.02 per share, compared to net income of $7 million or $0.01 per share for th year-ago quarter.

On average, 39 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.05 per share for the second quarter.

Net sales for the second quarter rose 22% to $15.70 billion from $12.83 billion in the same quarter last year. Forty analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $15.73 billion for the second quarter.

Total operating expenses jumped 23% to $15.6 billion. Operating income for the quarter fell 26% to $79 million from $107 million a year ago.

Looking forward to the third quarter, the company forecasts net sales of $15.45 billion to $17.15 billion and an operating loss of $440 million to $65 million. Analysts currently expect the company to post revenue of $16.98 billion for the third quarter.