Amazon Hits Top Line, Misses on the Bottom; Shares Plummet

Another day, another disappointment from an Internet high-flier. Yesterday Netflix (NFLX) posted revenue below Wall Street’s expectations and got hammered; today Amazon (AMZN) missed its earnings number and is getting crushed.

Jeff Bezos and company earned $0.45 per share on revenues of $6.57 billion. The street was looking for $6.54 billion and $0.54 a share.

Shares dropped immediately after the numbers were released; the most recent data I’ve seen show AMZN down 15 percent in after-hours trading. Apparently investors are more concerned about the EPS miss than they are cheered by Amazon’s Q3 guidance, which is better than expected: The company says it expects to book between $6.9 billion and $7.6 billion; analysts had expected something like $7.2 billion.

As always, many thanks to Citigroup Mark Mahaney for his cheat sheet, which allows those of us so inclined to play along at home:

Per usual, Amazon plays it close to the vest with Kindle sales data (all data, really). Nothing new beyond the not-that-specific numbers it already sent out this week boasting about accelerating device and book sales.