Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) reported stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday, exceeding Wall Street estimates on both revenue and profit.
However, the e-commerce and cloud giant issued weaker-than-expected guidance for the first quarter, sending shares lower in after-hours trading.
The company posted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.86, surpassing analysts' consensus estimate of $1.50.
Revenue for the quarter came in at $187.79 billion, slightly ahead of expectations of $187.32 billion.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's cloud computing unit, reported $28.79 billion in net sales, just shy of the $28.82 billion estimate. AWS grew 19% year over year, a solid performance but in line with broader industry trends after Microsoft and Alphabet recently posted similar cloud growth figures.
Despite the earnings beat, Amazon's first-quarter outlook disappointed investors. The company forecasted net sales between $151 billion and $155.5 billion, falling short of analysts' expectations of $158.64 billion.
Shares of Amazon slid 2.3% after hours following the guidance update. The stock remains up about 9% year-to-date.