Amazon.com earnings rise 29%

Web retailer Amazon.com Inc. said Wednesday that its first-quarter profit rose 29%, helped by solid sales in the U.S. and abroad.

But lower operating income guidance for the full fiscal year pushed shares down $3.70, or 4.6%, to $77.30 in after-hours trading. The stock rose $1.40 to $81 in regular trading.

Quarterly earnings climbed to $143 million, or 34 cents a share, from $111 million, or 26 cents, in the year-earlier period.

Those results beat Wall Street’s expectations. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast a profit of 32 cents a share.

Revenue increased 37% to $4.14 billion, the company said. Sales in North America rose 31% to $2.13 billion from a year earlier.

International sales grew 44% to $2.01 billion, and accounted for 49% of total revenue, up from 46% last year.

Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak said he did not see evidence in Amazon’s results that U.S. shoppers had changed their buying behavior, despite widespread concern about a possible recession.

“We don’t have a lot of data points about the economy specifically, but what we’re seeing in our business is, it’s very solid,” he said.

Amazon said it expected sales of $3.86 billion to $4.08 billion for the current quarter. Analysts expect $3.84 billion.

For the year, the Seattle-based retailer forecast $19.1 billion to $20 billion in revenue, close to Wall Street’s current outlook for $19.3 billion.

Amazon’s operating income guidance for the year -- $740 million to $940 million -- was about $45 million lower on both ends than the company’s forecast three months earlier.

Szkutak said the number was depressed by stock-option expenses and costs from the acquisition of audio book company Audible.com.