Amazon.com Inc. expects to report first quarter sales of more than $695 million, an increase of more than 21% over net sales of $574 million in the first quarter of last year, fueled by strong growth in electronics and international, the company announced today. Gross profit is expected to exceed $175 million, an increase of over 35% from gross profit of $128 million in last year’s first quarter. Pro forma operating loss is expected to be slightly less than $50 million, Amazon said, compared to a pro forma operating loss of $99 million a year ago.
Amazon also said:
--U.S. books, music and video gross profit is expected to increase more than 30% on very slight sales growth.
-Cash and marketable securities are expected to be over $640 million, and the company continues to expect cash and marketable securities to be over $900 million at December 31, 2001.
--Net loss is expected to be less than $255 million, down from a net loss of $308 million. Excluding this quarter’s portion of the previously announced restructuring charge, the net loss is expected to be less than $150 million.
--Annualized inventory turnover is expected to be approximately 12, up from 9 in the prior year.
“For the fifth consecutive quarter we saw substantial improvement in our operations and bottom-line performance,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com chief executive officer. “Electronics demonstrated especially strong growth and improvements.”
Amazon.com expects to release complete first-quarter 2001 results after market close on April 24.
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