Amazon.com Inc. Up After Hours; Beats Q4 Profit Views

Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN shares gained in Thursday's extended session after the company beat Wall Street's fourth-quarter profit expectations by a significant margin. The Seattle-based company's shares changed hands recently up more than 2 percent at $311.78. Amazon forecast first-quarter operating results of between a loss of $450 million and income of $50 million, compared with operating income of $146 million a year earlier. Amazon also forecast first-quarter revenue of between $20.9 billion and $22.9 billion, up by between 6 percent and 16 percent from a year earlier. Wall Street expects first-quarter profit of $0.12 cents a share, on revenue of $23.05 billion. In the recent fourth-quarter, Amazon's net income fell to $214 million, or $0.45 cents a share, from $239 million, or $0.51 cents a share last year. Sales grew 15 percent to $29.33 billion, from $25.59 billion last year. Wall Street expected fourth-quarter profit of $0.17 cents a share, on revenue of $29.67 billion.