Amazon beats 4Q profit forecasts

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $749 million.

The Seattle-based company said it had net income of $1.54 per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.40 per share.

The online retailer posted revenue of $43.74 billion in the period, missing Street forecasts. Eleven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $44.87 billion.

For the current quarter ending in April, Amazon said it expects revenue in the range of $33.25 billion to $33.75 billion. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected revenue of $35.83 billion.

Amazon shares have risen 12 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed almost 2 percent. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $839.33, a climb of 52 percent in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on AMZN at https://www.zacks.com/ap/AMZN

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