Amazon secures first quarter growth despite tariff uncertainty

The e-com giant reported $1.59 in earnings-per-share (EPS) and revenue of $155.67bn, while analysts predicted EPS would reach $1.36 on revenue of $155bn. 

The results come despite a 17% drop in its stock price this year with fears that shoppers would cut back on purchases in response to Donald Trump’s move on tariffs. Huge volumes of products sold on Amazon ship from China, which now faces a 145% tariff. 

According to The Guardian, Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy said in the company’s earnings call: “It’s hard to tell with tariffs how they’re going to settle and when they’re going to settle,” and that there “had maybe never been a more important time” to have the broadest possible selection of items at the lowest possible prices.

Jassy also said Amazon had brought inventory purchases forward and encourages its sellers to do the same.

The retailer did miss analyst expectations within its cloud services division, Amazon Web Services, with shares falling by as much as 5% in after-hours trading. 

The division posted a 16.9% increase in quarterly revenue, to $29.27bn, missing expectations of 17.4% growth and $30.9bn in sales.