Amazon.com second quarter earnings did not make investors happy, with net income down sharply from 2005 thanks the severed relationship between the internet retailer and Toysrus.com to $22 million, or 5 cents a share. Investors had driven the stock down below its 52-week low by the time the hold music had come to an end and the conference call had begun. Here's a link to the company's report.

5:04 p.m. After the usual disclaimers, CFO Tom Szkutak ("Tom") takes over to do a dry recap of the results. He sounds very, very, very softspoken. Even, a little ... afraid? Maybe he's just a master of zen.

5:08 p.m. I have to turn my volume up to hear him. "We continue to invest in increased selection." The SKUs in warehouses have increased by 48%, and Tom points out the new grocery selection, as well as the addition of German sporting goods.

5:09 p.m. Revenue grew 23% excluding the impact of Toysrus.com in North America. Gross profit grew 11%, although the gross margin decreased. I think he said 174 basis points of 220 total bps decline -- a huge part of it, but the decrease would have been there regardless. That's interesting and I hope management explains the reason for those missing 50-some basis points in operating margin shortfall.

5:10 p.m. He says that international operating income and margins decreased due to low prices, including free shipping, and a change in mix.

Continue reading Live blogging Amazon.com 2nd quarter earnings call

Live blogging Amazon.com 2nd quarter earnings call originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Jul 2006 17:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Amazon.com investors are not pleased. Not at all. The internet retailer had major strategy changes this quarter with the embittered breakup with longtime partner Toysrus.com, and that combined with other factors to send net income down 58% from the year-ago quarter. Quarterly net income was $22 million, five cents per diluted share, versus $50 million, or 12 cents per share, in 2005. Sales, however, were good and within Amazon's forecasted range at $2.14 billion, up 22%.

Investors didn't seem to care much that sales showed such a strong growth rate, or that Amazon.com had, indeed, warned of ill effects of the end of the Toysrus.com partnership. After falling 72 cents in intraday trading ahead of the earnings release, shares were down another $3.47, or 12.2% on the day, in after-hours trading a few minutes after the announcement.

Amazon.com's 52-week low is $30, only a few pennies less than where the stock stands in after-hours.

Amazon.com 2nd quarter earnings release: not happy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Jul 2006 16:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Second quarter earnings exceeded expectations, with $2.455 billion in total revenue for the quarter (up 77% year-over-year) and $2.33 earnings per diluted share. After the bell, investors seemed happy; the stock was recovering from its intraday drop of $11.88, although as the minutes ticked by, the recovery was less and less.

It will be interesting to watch as investors digest the report, and listen to the earnings conference call. I've just started listening, and it's a numbers-rattle-off right now.

4:41 p.m. -- Sergey Brin begins the call, talking about the details of the earnings report. He says that the company noted earlier that capex would be higher, as a percentage, than it was last year, and it continues to be, up to 12% of revenue from 10% last year -- that's a lot of dollars given the huge growth in revenue. Headcount was up over 1,000 people, mostly in Ireland and India.

4:44 p.m. -- Larry Page takes over to talk about the warmer, fuzzier parts of the business. He focuses on Google Checkout, which is hoped to help advertisers generate more sales. He says that Google's option will help advertisers capture those customers who abandon their shopping carts, and generate higher clickthroughs. He says they are "generating healthy adoption rates" including Bluefly, Starbucks, and more.

4:48 p.m. -- Page thinks this is one of the most exciting products the company has generated to date, and "hopes" it will bring revenues. Naturally investors want this: 99% of Google's revenues, healthy as they are, are still coming from search advertising.

Continue reading Liveblogging Google second quarter earnings

Liveblogging Google second quarter earnings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 20 Jul 2006 16:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Google's earnings exceeded expectations for the second quarter, with $721.1 million on revenue of $2.455 billion. At first, the investors were exultant, and the stock recovered from its $11.88 fall on the day.

However, Sheldon Liber and I have been eagerly watching the stock progress in after-hours trading. The stock had almost reversed all its losses for the day a few minutes after the announcement, then dropped again by about 4:45 p.m. But by the time we published this post at 4:50, the losses had once again been mostly erased and the stock hovered around $394. We'll see how the call affects investors' feelings...

Google second quarter earnings: sigh of relief? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 20 Jul 2006 16:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With great results on the earnings release, a few minutes ago, I was excited to hear the whole glowing report by Meg Whitman & team. I tuned in early.

Evidently, it's not a good idea to tune in early. I kept refreshing my page only to miss the first 14 minutes. So I'll be following up and re-capping when the webcast is archived later tonight. In the meantime...

5:14 p.m. -- CEO Meg Whitman is excitedly talking about PayPal when I tune in, and quickly goes on to Skype, talking about the free SkypeOut North America promotion, saying that U.S. and Canada downloads tripled and "revenue has accelerated past pre-campaign levels" despite the free nature of the campaign.

5:18 p.m. -- "Never stand still, adjust with lightning speed to whatever comes our way," is the strategy, says Meg. She also points out the many doubters along the way -- "why does eBay need a bank?" and "what is eBay doing with Skype?" -- but says that doubters have now been quashed. She's a really excellent speaker, eBay's speechwriter should get a bonus.

5:22 p.m. -- Now time for CFO Bob Swan. I think all CFO's should be named "Bob." He begins to rattle off the financial results. User growth continues to be strong, with 10 million new users in the quarter. Auction listings showed a year-over-year growth of 35%, and 106 million new listings in the stores, total. That's 3.1 million new users in the U.S., and U.S. listings grew 15% (guess most of that growth is coming outside the U.S.).

Continue reading Liveblogging eBay second quarter earnings call

Liveblogging eBay second quarter earnings call originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 19 Jul 2006 17:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ahead of the investor conference call starting in a few minutes, eBay announced second-quarter revenue of $1.411 billion and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share of $0.24. Wall Street will be entirely unsurprised, as this is exactly what analysts predicted.

Will it be enough to turn around today's (and, in fact, this year's) stock malaise? It seems as if investors are relieved; in after hours trading, the stock has recovered the day's losses and more, currently at $27.24 in after hours, up from a close of $25.93. Could this be the end of eBay's slide? Tune into the live coverage of the earnings conference call in a few minutes to learn more.

eBay second quarter earnings: meets expectations on the nose originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 19 Jul 2006 16:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.