Amazon Shares Drop After 2010 4th Quarter Earnings Report

Amazon reported 4th Quarter 2010 earnings today and investors immediately sold off on the announcement.

After the bell, the Internet retailer shed 11% in heavy trading after reaching an intraday high of $186/share. As I write this, Amazon is trading $168.00/share..

Net income was up $416 million versus $384 million on same quarter comparison last year. Revenue was $12.95 billion, just shy of what analysts were looking for of $13 billion.

The company is estimating first quarter 2011 revenue to be between $9.1 billion to $9.9 billion - a pretty big range for a revenue estimate.

Although Amazon doesn't give out Kindle sales numbers, they said they sold millions during Christmas season.

The number of Kindle e-book titles is now 810,000 with most titles being sold under $9.99.

They now are selling more e-books than paperback books and three times more Kindle books than hardback covers.

Because of the big range of forward estimate next quarter for revenues (10%), Amazon trading over $170/share is a risky venture for investors for the next few months. Here's today's chart after the earnings announcement - definitely not a happy day for Amazon shareholders.

About Kerry Kobashi

Kerry is the founder of KerryOnWorld. He lives in Silicon Valley and has worked as an engineer and project manager. He owns Kobashi Computing a consulting company.