Amazon’s Q1 2012: Revenue Up 34 Percent To $13.2B, Net Income Down 35 Percent

Amazon just reported earnings for the first quarter of 2012. Net sales increased 34% to $13.18 billion in the first quarter, compared with $9.86 billion in first quarter 2011. Net income decreased 35% to $130 million in the first quarter, or $0.28 per diluted share, compared with net income of $201 million, or $0.44 per diluted share, in first quarter 2011. The company beat Wall Street expectations; analysts expected a profit of $0.07 per share on revenue of $12.9 billion for the quarter.

“I’m excited to announce that we now have more than 130,000 new, in-copyright books that are exclusive to the Kindle Store – you won’t find them anywhere else. They include many of our top bestsellers – in fact, 16 of our top 100 bestselling titles are exclusive to our store,” said CEO and founder Jeff Bezos.

“If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you don’t even need to buy these titles – you can borrow them for free – with no due dates – from our revolutionary Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is heavily used by Kindle owners, and it has extremely unusual features that both authors and customers love. Every time you borrow a book, the author gets paid – and we have an inexhaustible supply of each title so you never have to wait in a queue for the book you want. Kindle is the bestselling e-reader in the world by far, and I assure you we’ll keep working hard so that the Kindle Store remains yet another reason to buy a Kindle!”

Unsurprisingly, we didn’t see any concrete number when it comes to Kindle sales. Amazon says that the Kindle Fire remains the best selling, most gifted, and most wished for product on the site. In the first quarter, 9 out of 10 of the top sellers on Amazon.com were digital products – Kindle, Kindle books, movies, music and apps.

Operating cash flow increased 1% to $3.05 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $3.03 billion for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2011. Operating income was $192 million in the first quarter, compared with $322 million in first quarter 2011.

North America segment sales were $7.43 billion, up 36% from first quarter 2011. International segment sales, representing the Company’s U.K., German, Japanese, French, Chinese, Italian and Spanish sites, were $5.76 billion, up 31% from first quarter 2011. Worldwide Media sales grew 19% to $4.71 billion.

Worldwide Electronics and Other General Merchandise sales grew 43% to $7.97 billion.

Q2 2012 net sales are expected to be between $11.9 billion and $13.3 billion, or to grow between 20% and 34% compared with second quarter 2011.

After missing Q4 financial expectations, the company has been focusing on adding content to Amazon Instant Video, and expanding the Kindle Touch to new markets. Amazon also acquired order fulfillment company Kiva Systems for $775 million in cash.