Amazon share price falls by the most in a decade as revenues disappoint

Shares in Amazon fell as much as 13 per cent in New York after hours trading this evening – the company's biggest fall in at least  a decade.

 

The drop occurred after the online retailer posted disappointing results for the third quarter, with forecasts and sales falling well below Wall Street expectations.

 

Analysts had expected Amazon to report revenues of $20.84bn for the period, but the final figure was $20.58bn. This was the seventh time in nine quarters that the company failed to meet expectations. 

 

On top of that, it projected weaker-than-expected sales for the crucial holiday quarter. The company said it expected sales of between $27.3bn and $30.3bn, below Wall Street's predicted $30.4bn.

 

The company posted a loss of 95 cents per share, briefly pushing its shares below 280, its lowest level in well over a year. 

 

"This loss is a hard one to swallow. This is going to make it tough to justify that we're investing in the future, when the loss is this big," Lou Basenese, founder of Disruptive Tech Research, told CNBC.

 

The huge share price drop makes the company one of the worst performing stocks on the S&P 500 this year.