Amazon.com Inc., the world’s largest Internet retailer, posted an 8.7 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit after promotions and discounts lured consumers to its Web site. Sales beat estimates, sending the shares up 13 percent.
Net income climbed to $225 million, or 52 cents a share, from $207 million, or 48 cents, a year earlier, the Seattle- based company said today in a statement. Sales rose 18 percent to $6.7 billion, compared with an estimate of $6.45 billion in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.
Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is relying on low prices, shipping promotions and product selection to maintain growth in a recession. The company outpaced the rest of the e- commerce market over the past two years and that’s likely to continue, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Amazon.com had its biggest holiday sales ever, even as rival EBay Inc. posted its first quarterly decline.
“They have discounted heavily in order to maintain market share and drive revenue,” Fred Moran, an analyst at Stanford Group in Boca Raton, Florida, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “Given the environment, that might be the right way to go.”
Amazon.com rose $6.40 to $56.40 in late trading after closing at $50 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares dropped 45 percent last year.