Amazon’s Billion-Dollar Quarter
The second-quarter net loss for Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) was less than half what it had been last year, in conjunction with a 37% rise in net sales. For the three months ended, the online superstore lost $43.3 million on sales of $1.10 billion. For the second quarter of 2002, Amazon had posted a net loss of $93.6 million on sales of $805.6 million. Pro forma net income, which includes interest expense, grew to $42 million, a reversal from last year’s second-quarter pro forma net loss of $4 million.
North American sales grew 20%, to $703 million. Amazon expects total third-quarter sales to reach $1.075 billion-$1.15 billion, a 26%-35% increase from the third quarter of 2002. For the full year, the company projects net sales of $4.9 billion-$5.1 billion, up 25%-30% from last year.
Sales, Income Down at Black Box Pittsburgh-based Black Box Corp. (Nasdaq: BBOX) didn’t kick off its fiscal year with a bang. For its fiscal first quarter ended June 29, the cataloger of computer networking products and services has sales of $128.3 million. That’s a 17% decline from $154.4 million for the comparable quarter of last year. Net income fell from $14.7 million to $11.5 million.
NBTY’s Direct Sales Up 23% Quarterly sales within the Puritan’s Pride catalog/e-commerce division of NBTY (Nasdaq: NBTY) increased 23%, to $60.9 million for the three months ended June 30. For the comparable quarter of 2002, Puritan’s Pride sales were $49.4 million. The manufacturer/marketer of nutritional supplements credits the improvement to sales promotions, increased advertising, and an investment in speeding delivery to customers.
Including its wholesale, retail, and international divisions, Bohemia, NY-based NBTY posted a 22% rise in sales for its fiscal third quarter, to $308.5 million. Net income dipped a bit, to $29.5 million from $29.7 million a year ago.