The Amazon mystery: Despite 20% revenue jump, weakest growth since 2015

This is not the Amazon.com Inc. that investors have come to expect. 

The company said Thursday that its fourth-quarter revenue rose nearly 20 per cent from a year earlier, which topped analysts’ expectations but was still the weakest growth since early 2015. The growth rate carries some caveats, including a changing composition of Amazon’s retail sales and accounting changes that pinch the company’s reported pace of revenue.

But it’s becoming clearer that Amazon’s incredible growth machine is getting less incredible. The company is compensating by delivering more steady and solid profits — at least by Amazon’s standards. But a less growth-charged, higher-margin