Amazon: It’ll be expensive for us in the short term

Amazon.com, Inc. has announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2021 revealing a steep drop in profits and indication that Q4 will also challenging.

• Operating cash flow decreased 1% to $54.7 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $55.3 billion for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2020.
• Free cash flow decreased to $2.6 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $29.5 billion for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2020.
• Free cash flow less principal repayments of finance leases and financing obligations decreased to an outflow of $8.8 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with an inflow of $18.4 billion for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2020.
• Free cash flow less equipment finance leases and principal repayments of all other finance leases and financing obligations decreased to an outflow of $3.9 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with an inflow of $17.9 billion for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2020.
• Common shares outstanding plus shares underlying stock-based awards totaled 523 million on September 30, 2021, compared with 518 million one year ago.
• Net sales increased 15% to $110.8 billion in the third quarter, compared with $96.1 billion in third quarter 2020. Excluding the $0.5 billion favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 15% compared with third quarter 2020.
• Operating income decreased to $4.9 billion in the third quarter, compared with $6.2 billion in third quarter 2020.
• Net income decreased to $3.2 billion in the third quarter, or $6.12 per diluted share, compared with $6.3 billion, or $12.37 per diluted share, in third quarter 2020.

“We’ve always said that when confronted with the choice between optimizing for short-term profits versus what’s best for customers over the long term, we will choose the latter—and you can see that during every phase of this pandemic,” said Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO. “In the first several months of COVID-19, Amazonians played an essential role to help people secure the requisite PPE, food, and other in-demand items needed, and we worked closely with businesses and governments to leverage AWS to maintain business continuity as they responded to the pandemic. Customers have appreciated this commitment, which is part of what’s driving this past quarter’s AWS growth acceleration to 39% year over year; but, it’s also driven extraordinary investments across our businesses to satisfy customer needs—just one example is that we’ve nearly doubled the size of our fulfillment network since the pandemic began. In the fourth quarter, we expect to incur several billion dollars of additional costs in our Consumer business as we manage through labor supply shortages, increased wage costs, global supply chain issues, and increased freight and shipping costs—all while doing whatever it takes to minimize the impact on customers and selling partners this holiday season. It’ll be expensive for us in the short term, but it’s the right prioritization for our customers and partners.”