Ardelyx Inc (NASDAQ: ARDX) reported first quarter EPS of $-0.170, $0.06 worse than the analyst estimate of $-0.110. Revenue for the quarter came in at $74.11M versus the consensus estimate of $78.09M.
Ardelyx Inc’s stock price closed at $5.47. It is up 2.050% in the last 3 months and down -19.590% in the last 12 months.
Ardelyx Inc saw 2 positive EPS revisions and 0 negative EPS revisions in the last 90 days. See Ardelyx Inc’s stock price’s past reactions to earnings here.
Apple Inc.’s sales from China declined more than anticipated in the latest quarter, overshadowing otherwise solid results for the iPhone maker.
China revenue fell 2.3% to $16 billion in the fiscal second quarter, which ran through March, the company said in a statement Thursday. Analysts had estimated $16.83 billion.
by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,
Amazon will invest $4 billion by 2026 to expand its network in rural America for delivering packages faster in densely populated areas, the company said in an April 30 statement.
“This investment will also grow our rural delivery network’s footprint to over 200 delivery stations, and we estimate it will create over 100,000 new jobs and driving opportunities through a wide range of full-time, part-time, and flexible positions in our buildings and on the roads,” the company said.
“Once this expansion is complete, our network will be able to deliver over a billion more packages each year to customers living in over 13,000 zip codes spanning 1,200,000 square miles—an area the size of Alaska, California, and Texas combined.”
The effort focuses on small towns in the United States. Amazon plans on expanding at a time when many logistics providers “have backed away from investing in rural customers and communities.”
Amazon estimates that by the end of next year, its rural delivery network will triple in size, with average delivery times being cut in half.
For each new facility opened as part of expansion, an estimated 170 new jobs on average shall be created at the delivery station level, Amazon said, adding that other job opportunities would be extra, such as those created via the Delivery Service Partner (DSP) and Amazon Flex programs.
DSP is a program in which small businesses set up delivery services to transport Amazon goods. Flex is aimed at individuals who want to make some extra money delivering Amazon packages using their own vehicles.
The flex program has been caught up in legal conflicts involving driver contracts.
In June last year, lawyers representing thousands of Amazon Flex drivers announced they filed legal claims alleging the company wrongly classified the drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, which led to them being deprived of various financial benefits and worker protections.
“As Amazon exerts considerable control over the Flex drivers in their deliveries and the deliveries are part of Amazon’s usual business, the drivers qualify as Amazon employees, not independent contractors, and should be paid accordingly,” Joseph Sellers, partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC and attorney for the drivers, said at the time.
In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, an Amazon spokesperson said the Flex program enables individuals to make “competitive pay” while setting their own schedules and being their own boss.
“We hear from most of the Amazon Flex delivery partners that they love the flexibility of the program, and we’re proud of the work they do on behalf of customers every day,” the spokesperson said.
In its April 30 statement, Amazon said it is the leading job creator in the United States, having created more than 500,000 jobs over the past five years.
The company cited a study by Amazon economists, the University of Pennsylvania, and The Wharton School, which found that “when Amazon opens a facility, median household incomes in the county increase by $1,225 per year and poverty rates fall by as much as 3.3 percent on average,” the statement said.
Amazon’s decision to expand rural delivery comes as the United Parcel Service (UPS) recently said it was aiming to cut half of its Amazon business by the second half of the year.
During a Jan. 30 earnings call, UPS CEO Carol Tome said the company was concerned about the volume and revenue concentration that was tied up with its Amazon delivery operations.
“Our contract with Amazon came up this year, and so we said it’s time to step back for a moment and reassess our relationship because if we take no action, it will likely result in diminishing returns,” she said.
In an April 29 conference call with Wall Street analysts, Tome said she was pleased with the ongoing efforts to reduce the company’s reliance on Amazon’s business.
“This volume is not a healthy fit for our network. The Amazon volume we plan to keep is profitable and is a healthy volume,” she said, adding that Amazon currently makes up 11.7 percent of UPS revenue.
Meanwhile, Amazon recently responded to a report that it was planning to display the cost of U.S. tariffs next to the price of products on its website.
The report had triggered comments from the White House, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying on April 29 that such a move would amount to a “hostile and political act.”
“Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?” she said.
Amazon denied that it would be carrying out the plan, saying it never considered displaying tariff information on its website.
“The team that runs our ultra-low cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products. This was never approved and is not going to happen,” Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.
The Kremlin has confirmed Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the "Victory Day" celebrations in Moscow on May 9, illustrating the close strategic partnership between the two countries, also at a moment that Ukraine is alleging the presence of Chinese fighters engaged in the conflict.
"We are waiting for the leader of China," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters this week. "There will be a separate visit by President Xi, to which we attach great importance and are preparing."
This year's commemoration of the end of WW2 and major national Russian holiday will mark the 80th anniversary, and President Putin last week declared a unilateral 3-day truce in Ukraine for May 8-11.
Ukraine has called it an attempt at manipulation and questioned why Russia doesn't just declare a thirty-day ceasefire starting immediately. It's anything but clear whether Ukraine plans to reciprocate a 3-day ceasefire.
While there's as yet no evidence of official Chinese military involvement in Ukraine operations, the past week has seen Moscow and Pyongyang confirm the presence of North Korean troops in the conflict - specifically in action to liberate Kursk region.
However, there will be sizeable Chinese military representation at the traditional military parade through Red Square for Victory day. China has of course been a key BRICS economic lifeline for Moscow throughout the war, whether via Russian oil purchases or sending dual use military-industrial parts.
Chinese troops rehearsing May 9 parade in Moscow in 2025. It were American, British, French and Polish troops back in 2010. pic.twitter.com/ucGp27x2bl
— Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) May 1, 2025
Earlier this week Ukraine's President Zelensky actually hinted that Victory Day events, particularly in Moscow, could come under attack.
"We... are choosing exactly those painful points of Russia that will most of all push Moscow to diplomacy. They must take clear steps to end the war, and we insist that the first step should be an unconditional and complete cease-fire. Russia should do it," Zelensky began in a Tuesday evening message.
"Now they are worried that their parade is in question, and they are rightly worried. But they should be concerned that this war is still going on. They must end the war," Zelensky said.
This year's celebrations could be somewhat on edge, given drones out of Ukraine has been traveling further and further, doing damage to oil and gas facilities, military bases, and at times city neighborhoods.
The Kremlin has largely shrugged this off, and the threat was somewhat indirect, but has highlighted that Zelensky is making terroristic threats to potentially attack a civic event in the heart of the capital. Lately there's been assassination bombings targeting top Russian generals, as well as long-range drone attacks which have reached the outskirts of Moscow.
Likely the Russian defense and security services will bulk up anti-air systems in an around Moscow for Victory Day events. Officials from various countries and especially Russia-friendly nations are expected to be present.
Ahead of Amazon's earnings, and following two blowout results from the first two giga-cap companies MSFT and META, UBS said that the "fast money seems to be short Amazon into the quarter on AWS and North America sales growth, with no upward revisions on the print." Meanwhile, the longer duration money "continues to like the story around AWS reacceleration, potential EBIT upside to Street, compelling valuation and potential AI theme around core ecommerce." In short, there was a tension between the short-term traders and long-term HODLers.
Judging by the kneejerk reaction to Q1 earnings just released, the short-termers were right, with the stock dumping after reporting mixed Q1 earnings but it was the guidance that was really disappointing.
Here are the details:
EPS $1.59 vs. $1.86 q/q, beating estimate $1.36
Net sales $155.67 billion, +8.6% y/y, beating estimates of $155.16 billion
Online stores net sales $57.41 billion, +5% y/y, beating estimates of $56.85 billion
Physical Stores net sales $5.53 billion, +6.4% y/y, beating estimates of $5.41 billion
Third-Party Seller Services net sales $36.51 billion, +5.5% y/y, missing estimates of $36.98 billion
Subscription Services net sales $11.72 billion, +9.3% y/y, beating estimates of $11.65 billion
North America net sales $92.89 billion, +7.6% y/y, beating estimate $92.63 billion
International net sales $33.51 billion, +4.9% y/y, beating estimate $33.07 billion
Third-party seller services net sales excluding F/X +7% vs. +16% y/y, beating estimate +6.92%
Subscription services net sales excluding F/X +11% vs. +11% y/y, beating estimate +8.86%
So far so good (with some exceptions).
But what first caught the market's attention first was Amazon's AWS revenue, which came in just below estimates:
Amazon Web Service net sales $29.27 billion, +17% y/y, missing estimates $29.36 billion
Amazon Web Services net sales excluding F/X +17% vs. +17% y/y, also missing estimates +17.2%
Turning to operating profits, here the results were uniformly solid:
AWS operating profit 39.45%, up sequentially from 36.83% and smashing estimates of 35.25%
Operating income $18.41 billion, +20% y/y, beating estimate $17.51 billion
Operating margin 11.8% vs. 10.7% y/y, beating estimate 11.2%
North America operating margin +6.3% vs. +5.8% y/y, missing estimate +6.65%
International operating margin 3% vs. 2.8% y/y, beating estimate 2.96%
As for fulfillment expenses, these came in slightly above estimates, while the seller unit mix was slightly worse than expected. These will likely rise quite a bit in a tariff regime:
Fulfillment expense $24.59 billion, +10% y/y, higher than estimate $23.78 billion
Seller unit mix 61% vs. 61% y/y, worse than estimate 61.8%
Of the above, the most notable highlight - as per our preview - was AWS which grew revenue by 17% to $29.27BN, just below the sellside estimate of $29.36BN, and the first notable slowdown in the topline in two years.
Still, if revenue growth for AWS was a bit light, the record 39.5% margin more than offset it, beating estimates of 35.35%. Elsewhere, North American profit rose to $5.84 billion, resulting in a profit of 6.29%, if below the estimate of 6.65%. Meanwhile, international margins rose to 3.30% from 3.03%.
As a result of the jump in AWS profits, Amazon's consolidated operating margin continued to grow impressively and in Q1 grew for a 4th consecutive quarter to a new all time high of 11.8%.
However, while the above data was mixed if generally solid, it was the company's guidance that led to an after hours drop in the stock; that's because the company projected profit and revenue in the current quarter both of which were seen as coming in soft vs Wall Street expectations:
Sees net sales $159.0 billion to $164.0 billion, in line with the estimate of $161.4 billion
Sees operating income $13.0 billion to $17.50 billion, below the estimate $17.82 billion, vs $14.7 billion in Q2 2024.
Guidance sees impact of about 10 basis points from FX
If accurate, that would mean that after revenue grew at the slowest pace since 2022 in Q1, the outlook sees revenue growth post a modest improvement, rising just over 9% in Q2.
But again, it was the subpar operating income forecast that was the big disappointment.
In response to the soft guidance and the disappointing AWS revenue growth, the stock initially pumped but then dumped...
Amgen Inc. announced on Thursday that its revenue for the first quarter of 2025 stood at $8.1 billion, rising 9% from the same quarter a year earlier and slightly topping estimates.
GAAP net income landed at $1.7 billion, or $3.20 per diluted share, improving from a net loss of $113 million, or $0.21 per share, recorded in the first quarter of 2024. GAAP operating income jumped 20% year on year to $1.2 billion.
"Demand for our products was strong globally in the first quarter. Ongoing new product launches and successful Phase 3 trial results for several products make us feel confident in our long-term growth prospects," CEO Robert Bradway stated.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Amgen's-revenue-jumps-9-to-dollar8.1-billion-in-Q1/64026701
