Springtime profitability? There was a time when mighty online retailer Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) couldn't even close out the seasonally potent holiday quarter in the black. Now we're down to analyzing how much money the company is making in the typically sleepy June quarter. That's because Amazon.com earned $0.12 a share this past quarter. Sales rose by 26% to hit $1.75 billion. Both marks topped market expectations.
Sure, the company had earned $0.18 a share in last year's second quarter, but this time around, the company had a higher income-tax tab and is an early adopter in expensing its stock-based compensation. So don't let that mask the real growth here. Free cash flow rose by 37% for the period.
Amazon has made it. Skeptics who thought Amazon couldn't turn a profit as long as it was subsidizing shipping costs on many of its orders have been proved wrong. Shorts who figured that Amazon would be a flop overseas are now watching a company with 45% of its sales going international.
This was the company's 12th consecutive profitable quarter. The only real downer was that North American operating profits were up by just 9%. Given the launch of its Amazon Prime shopping club product earlier this year and the many new stores and product lines that it's tacked on over the past year, things could have gone a little better domestically. Then again, the company's lapping Wall Street's $1.7 billion sales figure shows just how well the company is doing overseas.
For all of 2005, the company is looking to post between $8.275 billion and $8.675 billion in sales. That represents top-line growth of at least 20%. Operating profits will come in at between $415 million and $515 million, and that assumes a $110 million hit in stock-based compensation.
So the company that seemed to be a bit cocky as Earth's Biggest Bookstore when it launched 10 years ago this month is now appropriately self-proclaimed as having Earth's Biggest Selection. It's no longer battling against Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) and Borders (NYSE:BGP). It's up against the retail world.
That includes some retailers such as Target (NYSE:TGT) and Office Depot (NYSE:ODP) that have turned to Amazon.com to run its virtual storefronts.
Yes, Amazon's a pretty sharp 10-year-old. Just wait until it hits the teens.
Amazon.com has risen by 146% since we recommended it in Motley Fool Stock Advisor nearly three years ago.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has been a satisfied Amazon.com customer since the 1990s. However, he does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.
