Aston Martin sales worse than expected (Reuters/Reuters)
Amazon (AMZN)
Amazon reported better-than-expected first-quarter profit and revenue, driven by growth in advertising and cloud computing.
Following the earnings report, the retail giant’s shares rose 5% in pre-market trading.
Amazon posted a profit of $10.4bn (£8.3bn) for the first three months of 2024, up from $3.2bn in the same period last year.
First-quarter sales rose 13% to $143.3 billion, driven by strong retail sales in North America and rapid growth at its digital infrastructure unit, Amazon Web Services. First-quarter net income more than tripled to $10.4 billion.
AWS revenue grew 17% in the first quarter to $25 billion, beating Wall Street expectations of 12% revenue growth to $24.5 billion.
CEO Andy Jassy told analysts that serving AI customers is a “huge opportunity” for Amazon.
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The company expects sales of $144 billion to $149 billion for the quarter ending in June.
“The stock price reacted broadly flat after the close,” said Mamta Valecha, equity research analyst at Quilter Cheviot. “Amazon is a popular stock with rising earnings expectations given the strong performance of other cloud-related companies such as Microsoft and Google. However, the company is posting record profits and is using those to fund the next phase of growth.”
AMD on Tuesday reported first-quarter revenue that slightly beat Wall Street expectations and gave guidance for the current quarter in line with expectations.
However, the stock price fell after the company reported weaker-than-expected earnings guidance for the current quarter.
Shares of the chipmaker fell about 6% in premarket trading Wednesday.
AMD said it expects revenue of about $5.7 billion for the current quarter, in line with Wall Street’s rough sales estimates, which would imply annual growth of about 6%.
The chipmaker reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.62 on revenue of $5.5 billion. Wall Street had expected adjusted EPS of $0.61 on revenue of $5.45 billion.
Net income was $123 million, or 7 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $139 million, or 9 cents a share, in the same period last year. Revenue increased about 2% year over year.
The company now expects its MI300 line of so-called AI accelerators to generate about $4 billion in revenue this year, up from a previous forecast of $3.5 billion, analysts said, though some investors had been hoping for an $8 billion figure.
GSK raised its full-year profit forecast on strong demand for its shingles vaccine and common respiratory virus vaccines.
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The company now expects its core profit, its preferred metric, to grow 9% to 11%, down from its previous guidance of 7% to 10%, while sales for the current fiscal year are now expected to grow at the high end of its previous guidance range of 5% to 7%.
The company also attributed the increase to a successful appeal in the first quarter in a royalty dispute over its ovarian cancer drug Zejula.
The company’s total sales for the third quarter were £7.4 billion, up 10% from the same period last year. Total operating profit for the period fell 18% to £1.49 billion.
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Darren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said strong growth in vaccines and specialty medicines drove double-digit sales growth in the first quarter and the second upward revision this year.
“Underlying earnings have grown at a faster pace due to careful cost management. However, the only cost item in which GSK has been investing is research and development, which is encouraging given the clinical successes emerging from the pipeline,” he said.
Aston Martin (AML.L)
Aston Martin revealed that its sales fell by more than a quarter at the start of the year.
The luxury car maker’s revenue for the first three months of the year fell 10% to £267.7m on sales falling 26% to 904.5 units.
Analysts had expected sales of £290.4 million and 1,159 units. Operating losses widened 15% to £58.7 million.
Aston Martin, which has launched several new vehicles over the past year, including the next-generation DB12 sports car and Vantage, has stopped production of older models ahead of expanding production of new vehicles later this year.
“Our first quarter results reflect our expectations for this transition period,” Chairman Lawrence Stroll said in a statement.
Shares fell 14% at the start of trading to 128 pence, their lowest since November 2022, before recovering slightly later.
Watch: Amazon reports better-than-expected first-quarter sales growth
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