Amazon finishes on the up but guidance disappoints

Amazon reported fourth-quarter earnings per share of $6.04 on revenues of $72.4bn - well ahead of the $5.65 and $71.61bn expected by analysts on Wall Street and 19.7% ahead of the same quarter a year earlier.

For the full year, Amazon revenues topped the $200bn milestone - maxing out at $232.9bn.

The Seattle-based firm revealed sales had increased in all but one of its five categories - physical stores, which is mostly made up of Whole Foods, saw a 3% decrease in revenues,

On the other hand, Amazon Web Services reported a 46% year-on-year increase to revenues - in line with previous quarters.

US sales grew just 18%, a sharp decline on the 42% growth reported last year, and international sales growth dropped from 29% to 15%.

For the first time in Amazon's history, cash and equivalents jumped 51% to $21bn.

Despite beating consensus estimates, Amazon told investors that it expects first-quarter revenues to be between $56bn and $60bn - short of the $60.8bn predicted by analysts, while net operating income was set to be somewhere in the range of $2.3bn to $3.3bn, ahead of the previous year but short of what analysts and investors had hoped for.

As of 2230 GMT, Amazon shares had slipped 2.14% in after-hours trading to $1,681.90 each.