On April 29, Eastern Time, according to foreign media reports, the world ’s largest online retailer Amazon said that even if its operating income surged, in the second quarter of this year, the company may still report its first quarterly loss in five years because the company responded The New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic cost at least $ 4 billion, including plans to test employees for the New Coronavirus.
According to Wind data, Amazon has turned into a profit since the second half of 2015 and has maintained stable growth.
On the same day, Amazon also disclosed the financial report data for the first quarter of 2020.
Financial report shows that Amazon ’s first quarter revenue was US $ 75.5 billion, an increase of 26% compared with the same period last year of US $ 59.7 billion; net profit was US $ 2.5 billion, compared with the same period The US $ 3.6 billion fell by 29%; earnings per share were US $ 5.01, a 29% decrease from US $ 7.09 in the same period last year. Amazon ’s stock price fell 5% in after-hours trading due to its failure to meet earnings expectations and the expected increase in spending.
For the large amount of expenses expected to be increased, Reuters quoted Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (Jeff Bezos) as saying, “We are not short-sighted Not thinking small.). “Reuters said that during the outbreak, Amazon had to increase investment and hired 175,000 employees when competitors’ physical retail stores had to be closed.
According to US media CNBC report, Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky (Brian Olsavsky) predicts that the company will spend all of 2020 One billion US dollars is used for testing the new coronavirus. Amazon has appointed a group of researchers, engineers, procurement experts, and project managers to improve their testing capabilities. In addition, Amazon said the team is building a laboratory and has begun testing front-line employees.
“Under normal circumstances, we would expect to achieve an operating profit of US $ 4 billion or more in the second quarter. But it is not normal now. Instead, we expect to The entire $ 4 billion of expenditure related to the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, perhaps a little more, will be spent on delivering products to customers and ensuring employee safety. “Bezos said.
Amazon expects that the company ’s performance in the second quarter of this year will range from a loss of US $ 1.5 billion to a profit of US $ 1.5 billion, and according to the research companyAccording to FactSet data, analysts had expected Amazon to achieve an operating profit of $ 3.8 billion.