Another disgruntled vPost User! Me!!!!

[SLSAMG88]

  On 2/20/2013 at 9:38 AM, Icedbs said:

Heck, in the end, I bought Amazon shares as well since they got so much biz from me.

 

You're probably joking, but in case you're not - you might want to read this:

 

You really have to hand it to Jeff Bezos and Amazon, which seem to continuously defy reality — and gravity. Amazon just announced its fourth quarter earnings, and if you listen to the press, you’d think it was another home run, and if you are watching Amazon trade after-hours, you’d think this is the most buyable stock since the last time MG wrote about APPL. Amazon is up nearly 10 percent since the market closed and, as Reuters points out to wit, the stock hit a record high on January 25th.

 

In part that’s because, yes, Amazon is the Walmart of the Internet, an the eCommerce giant. Thanks to network effects, it’s impossible to ignore. In fact, I’m using it to buy a tinfoil hat right now. The other contributing factor is, of course, the fact that Amazon increased its revenues, or global sales, by 22 percent to $21.27 billion in the fourth quarter.

 

That’s huge, right? The list of companies doing $21 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter isn’t long.

 

Cue the confetti.

 

Those who regularly have the distinct pleasure of listening to Amazon’s quarterly conference call for investors know that the company rarely says anything of substance in these calls. Usually, executives deflect questions, reading canned lines and sticking to the appropriate PR speak. But this quarter’s investor call may have been the shortest in history.

 

That’s probably because Amazon’s press release only tells one side of the story, and executives probably aren’t too eager to respond to any of those pesky naysayers. Here’s why: In spite of its $21 billion in sales, Amazon underperformed compared to analyst’s expectations. Of course expectations were high thanks to the usual holiday shopping bump for retail and eCommerce, but Amazon was expected to hit $0.27 EPS and $22 billion in revenues, and Amazon instead underperformed, coming in at $0.21 and $21 billion respectively.

 

That may not sound like a lot, and Amazon executives clearly think there isn’t much to be worried about, especially considering the company has $8 billion in cash. That’s nothing to scoff at, clearly, but there’s also the fact that the company’s net income decreased by 45 percent in the fourth quarter and growth is slowing. Amazon saw just $97 million in net profits in Q4. Yes, $97 million. That would be a big win for a company with $1 billion in revenue, but I’m probably not going out on a limb to say that it’s a red flag when you’re doing $21 billion.

 

If you look at the profit/loss graph in Leena’s post from earlier today [also included at the bottom of this post], one sees that Amazon hasn’t tallied more than $177 million in profits … well, for quite some time.

 

What’s more, as Zero Hedge points out, it’s almost comical that Amazon’s stock jumped after-hours. The irrationality of the markets in top form. The stock shot up this afternoon even after Amazon lowered its top-line guidance, projecting sales of between $15 to $16 billion, along with operating income.

 

On top of that, Amazon’s physical book sales had the slowest growth rate it’s seen in the last 17 years. Of course, thanks to the new age of eBooks and its quarterly increases in revenue, Amazon has continued hiring, growing its staff to a record of 88,400 in 2012. Meanwhile, global net sales saw the slowest year-over-year growth in recent memory, down 30 percent from Q3 and down 34 percent from Q4 2011.

 

But here’s the real kicker: As Zero Hedge and The Wall Street Journal have pointed out, the company’s net income is “now officially negative,” or $49. From Zero Hedge, that means that “as of this moment, the company with the idiotically high PE has an even more idiotic N/M PE.” In other words, N/M represents the correlation between the company’s market cap and its net income, or P/E (Price-to-Earnings), which is now negative.

 

As Paul Vigna of the WSJ astutely continues:

 

For the year, the company reported a loss of $39 million, or 9 cents a share, compared to net income of $631 million, or $1.37 a share, in 2011. Incidentally, that means the company doesn’t actually have a trailing-12-months price-to-earnings ratio, since there were no earnings for the past 12 months.

 

Yep, you read that correctly. There were no earnings for the past 12 months. Or P/E is now negative. Take your pick.

 

HUZZAH! Hooray! Take my money, please. Take it!

 

For some reason, the fact that Amazon is dealing with 1.9 percent margins, halting guidance, slowing growth, earnings and income misses and tiny profits seems not to matter to investors. People continue to buy Amazon stock, and the stock market at large continues to push higher as the Fed continues dumping money into banks instead of lending. But, don’t worry, Paul Krugman says everything is going to be fine. Phew.

 

Well, you’ll have to pardon me, Paul, but I think I’m going to go against the grain on this one and offer the world’s slowest slow clap to Amazon while continuing to hoard all of my cash under my mattress and consider a move to Antartica. Next thing we know Bitcoins will be the new standard.

 

I know Jeff Bezos has a giant brain and everything, but it’s hard not to look at Amazon earnings, mixed with the overall macroeconomic conditions and not feel slightly to moderately nauseous. Or like you need a strong drink.

Edited February 20, 2013 by SLSAMG88

[Icedbs]

  On 2/20/2013 at 4:23 PM, SLSAMG88 said:

You're probably joking, but in case you're not - you might want to read this:

 

You really have to hand it to Jeff Bezos and Amazon, which seem to continuously defy reality — and gravity. Amazon just announced its fourth quarter earnings, and if you listen to the press, you’d think it was another home run, and if you are watching Amazon trade after-hours, you’d think this is the most buyable stock since the last time MG wrote about APPL. Amazon is up nearly 10 percent since the market closed and, as Reuters points out to wit, the stock hit a record high on January 25th.

 

In part that’s because, yes, Amazon is the Walmart of the Internet, an the eCommerce giant. Thanks to network effects, it’s impossible to ignore. In fact, I’m using it to buy a tinfoil hat right now. The other contributing factor is, of course, the fact that Amazon increased its revenues, or global sales, by 22 percent to $21.27 billion in the fourth quarter.

 

That’s huge, right? The list of companies doing $21 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter isn’t long.

 

Cue the confetti.

 

Not sure why you posted this because first of all, this thread is about Vpost not Amazon. And secondly, I don't quite bother about analyst reports, blogs, hear-say , CNBC etc when I purchase a stock. I have my own investing system.

 

So thanks, but it doesn't matter.

Edited February 20, 2013 by Icedbs

[Mcfguy]

all my vpost delivery always end up with a slip and had to go down nearest post office to collect. Very frustrating. There were times when my son was at home during the delivery and he said he did not hear any doorbell. You go figure.

[Icedbs]

  On 2/20/2013 at 9:55 PM, Mcfguy said:

all my vpost delivery always end up with a slip and had to go down nearest post office to collect. Very frustrating. There were times when my son was at home during the delivery and he said he did not hear any doorbell. You go figure.

 

In the past when I was still working, I use my office address. Vpost will deliver there and it is impossible that my office has nobody to take delivery during working hours.

 

However, nowadays they are smarter. When your packages arrived in SGP, you will get an email. From my experience with them these days, 100% of the time they will deliver to my place one day after getting that email. So I just have to make sure I am at home the next day if I received that email from them today.

 

In the past, if I happen to miss delivery (sometimes they deliver on saturday when office is closed), I just give them a call and they will deliver again the next working day. In my 5-6 years dealing with them, I never have to go to post office to collect. You just call them to re-arrange delivery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeTan2013]

Hi Denis,

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles with vPost. I have had the same experience with them. Normally, it's over-priced and bloody slow! However, there's some hope for Singapore shoppers. I recently met the founder of ShippingBaron and they are seeking to improve things. ShippingBaron apparently is a new Singapore-based parcel shipping service that caters to heavy overseas shoppers. They are launching in April 2013.. I just pre-registered with them Their site is at www.shippingbaron.com

 

Best,

 

Mike

[Adrianli]

My recent purchase shipped by Vpost. When I bought the item, a table saw, I dont remember it being so heavy. Vpost told me its 9kg. Lan lan, pay up. When I collected it, obviously the thing does not weigh 9kg. Put it on my weighing machine, it shows 4kg only. It is not a big item so volumetric weight also cannot be so expensive.

 

Took a photo and submit to Vpost, they agree to refund 50% of the shipping cost.

 

 

[Tjkbeluga]

It's not purely by weight. It's call volumetric weight. THey have a formula to that. If your stuff is 1 m cube weighing only 1 kg, you'll be charge probably like 15kg or more.

 

EDIT: OK, looks like just a flat parcel... In that case, definitely need to bang table liao... hehehe

Edited August 13, 2015 by Tjkbeluga

[Adrianli]

  On 8/13/2015 at 3:30 AM, Tjkbeluga said:

It's not purely by weight. It's call volumetric weight. THey have a formula to that. If your stuff is 1 m cube weighing only 1 kg, you'll be charge probably like 15kg or more.

 

EDIT: OK, looks like just a flat parcel... In that case, definitely need to bang table liao... hehehe

 

Based on volumetric weight, from vpost website : http://www.vpost.com.sg/our-services/shipping-rates

 

My item is 17cm x 21cm x 28cm / 5,000cm = 1.9992kg

[Maxus-MIFA9]

  On 8/13/2015 at 3:19 AM, Adrianli said:

My recent purchase shipped by Vpost. When I bought the item, a table saw, I dont remember it being so heavy. Vpost told me its 9kg. Lan lan, pay up. When I collected it, obviously the thing does not weigh 9kg. Put it on my weighing machine, it shows 4kg only. It is not a big item so volumetric weight also cannot be so expensive.

 

Took a photo and submit to Vpost, they agree to refund 50% of the shipping cost.

 

 

Weighing machine with parcel.jpg

 

Maybe whilst weighing your parcel, the postmaster lunch box also on the scale .....

[Mustank]

  On 8/13/2015 at 3:19 AM, Adrianli said:

My recent purchase shipped by Vpost. When I bought the item, a table saw, I dont remember it being so heavy. Vpost told me its 9kg. Lan lan, pay up. When I collected it, obviously the thing does not weigh 9kg. Put it on my weighing machine, it shows 4kg only. It is not a big item so volumetric weight also cannot be so expensive.

 

Took a photo and submit to Vpost, they agree to refund 50% of the shipping cost.

 

 

Weighing machine with parcel.jpg

 

[Adrianli]

Bought this one lah. Can cut my diy stuff in a straight line.