Amazon, Broadcom: After-Hours Trading

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Amazon (AMZN) saw heavy selling in Tuesday's extended session after the company came in a dime short of Wall Street's profit expectations for its fiscal third quarter and gave a soft outlook.

The stock was last quoted $203.11, down nearly 11%, on after-hours volume of 4.4 million, according to Nasdaq.com. The shares have actually recovered a good bit, bouncing off a low of $184.59.

Amazon's margin shrinkage seems to have finally caught up to it. The company has been spending like crazy, expanding to offer customers cloud-based media storage and streaming as well as its popular Kindle e-readers. In mid-September, Amazon unveiled its tablet offering, the Kindle Fire, which will retail for $199, a price point that is generally believed to be below the company's cost.

For the fourth quarter ending in December, Amazon forecast between an operating loss of $200 million and a profit of $250 million with sales seen ranging from $16.45 billion to $18.65 billion. The current consensus view is for sales of $18.15 billion in the December-ending period, and a profit of 85 cents a share, which is based on a net income estimate of around $394 million.

Broadcom

Chip maker Broadcom (BRCM) fell victim to its outlook late Tuesday as Wall Street quickly moved past an above-consensus third quarter to focus on weakness in the company's fourth-quarter guidance.

The stock was last quoted at $33.45, off 5.5%, on volume of nearly 900,000, according to Nasdaq.com. The sell side was very bullish on Broadcom ahead of the report with 32 of the 43 analysts covering the shares at either strong buy (15) or buy (17), and the 12-month median price target sitting at $45.

Broadcom said it expects revenue of $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion for the December-ending quarter with both GAAP and non-GAAP product gross margins seen as flat to slightly down on a sequential basis.

Panera Bread

Shares of Panera Bread (PNRA) rose sharply in late trades after the St. Louis-based restaurant operator beat analyst projections for its fiscal third quarter and gave a strong forecast for fiscal 2012.

With company-owned comparable bakery-cafe sales rising 6%, Panera posted a profit of $29 million, or 97 cents a share, for the three months ended Sept. 30 as revenue rose 22% year-over-year to $453.1 million.

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