The world’s largest online retailer, Amazon, reported lower-than-expected earnings for Q3. The tech giant has many revenue streams, including Prime Day and now NFL Thursday Night Football — both of which were expected to contribute to meeting or exceeding earning goals.
Amazon’s Q3 earnings came in at $127.1 billion, which lowered share prices overnight. Net income for the company came in at $2.9 billion compared to $3.2 billion year-to-date.
The miss for earnings was not one Wall Street predicted. Amazon arguably had one of its most productive quarters to date with Prime Day and the release of its new Prime Video series Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power in tandem with them hosting the NFL Thursday Night Football slot.
The latter two were the largest launches for Amazon’s streaming service to date and came with a lot of advertising to bring in additional revenue.
The company stated that Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power is “closing in on 100 million [streams] to date,” making it the most watched and most successful of any original content on Prime Video. NFL Thursday Night Football also brought in massive numbers, bringing the platform the “3 biggest hours of U.S. Prime signups” in company history back in September.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy stated, “There is obviously a lot happening in the macroeconomic environment, and we’ll balance our investments to be more streamlined without compromising our key long-term, strategic bets. What won’t change is our maniacal focus on the customer experience, and we feel confident that we’re ready to deliver a great experience for customers this holiday shopping season.”
On the heels of the Q3 loss, Amazon is predicting another loss for Q4 to close out the fiscal year. Its new projected net income will fall somewhere in the range of $4 billion.
On the heels of the lower-than-expected Q3 earnings, Amazon is also forecasting a slowdown for Q4, with net sales of $140-$148 billion, up only 2% to 8% from a year ago. News of the Q4 forecast sent Amazon shares plummeting 13% in extended trading.
