Amazon posts record first-quarter profits triple what it made one year ago
Amazon.com continues to profit off Americans' pandemic shopping habits, posting a record first-quarter profit of $8.11 billion — more than tripling its first-quarter income back in 2020.
The e-commerce giant reported $108.5 billion in sales for the quarter ending March 31, up 44% from the year-earlier period. It's the second quarter in a row that Amazon passed the $100 billion sales mark.
Just three other U.S. companies have reported quarterly revenue above $100 billion: iPhone maker Apple, oil and gas company Exxon Mobil and retailer Walmart.
Amazon expects its second-quarter revenue to stay in the same range. Part of the reason is Prime Day, its annual shopping event, will be held sometime during the April through June period, Amazon said. It did not specify a date for the event, which typically happens in July but last year moved to October.
AWS, the cloud services division that generated half of Amazon's profit, maintained its steady 32% year-over-year growth clip in the first quarter, while North America sales, Amazon's largest segment, grew 40% from the year-ago period.
Amazon shares have climbed 6.5% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P 500-stock index is up 12%. But Amazon's stock price has soared 78% since last March, when the coronavirus pandemic first made online shopping a necessity for many consumers.
The company spent slightly less than $2 billion on coronavirus-related operating costs in the quarter, Brian Olsavsky, Amazon's chief financial officer, said on a call with investors and analysts. Its labor costs, meanwhile, are set to increase: The company announced this week it plans to boost pay for about 500,000 U.S. workers, who will receive hourly raises between 50 cents and $3. It already pays employees a $15 minimum starting wage.
Amazon has been on an unprecedented mass hiring spree, swelling its ranks by 430,000 workers in the past year to cope with pandemic-induced demand. It also faces growing worker activism. Amazon defeated its second union drive in the company's 26-year history when employees at a warehouse complex in Bessemer, Alabama, declined to join the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union last month. The company faces another unionizing effort in four facilities around Staten Island, New York.
Following the Bessemer campaign, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos vowed to make the company "Earth's best employer."
The Associated Press contributed reporting.