Amazon ( AMZN) on Thursday delivered a fourth-quarter revenue beat, even as its guidance disappointed investors and sent shares tumbling in afterhours trading. But we're sticking with the ecommerce giant on the expectation it will commit to further reining in costs this year, allowing the stock to soar higher. Revenue increased 8.5% year-over-year, to $149.2 billion, beating analysts' expectations for $145.42 billion, according to estimates compiled by Refinitiv. Earnings-per-share (EPS) fell to 3 cents, from $1.39 a share one year ago. However, this figure includes a pre-tax valuation loss of $2.3 billion related to Amazon's investment in Rivian Automotive (RIVN). Due to Amazon's significant stake in the electric vehicle maker, Amazon is required to record changes in its investment as non-operating income when there are gains, or as an expense when there are declines, as was the case in the fourth quarter. Analysts don't include Rivian's swings in their estimates, which is why the consensus forecast for earnings-per-share of 18 cents is not an accurate comparison. Shares of Amazon fell more than 5% in after hours trading, to around $107.06 apiece, following a session Thursday during which the stock gained more than 7%. Bottom line All in all, this was a good quarter from Amazon, with beats across business segments. Though, it would have looked cleaner without the Rivian valuation loss and some of the unanticipated charges. First-quarter guidance came in light, but the guidance is the guidance — and Amazon typically offers a wide, conservative range because of the breadth of its business and the unexpected items that can arise from quarter to quarter. At the same time, management needs to find more ways to increase efficiencies, whether it be through further layoffs or by abandoning unprofitable projects. If Amazon takes the hammer to its expenses like Meta Platforms did Wednesday , we think the stock could trade much higher. We continue to rate Amazon stock a 1 — meaning we would look to add to our position at these levels — on the expectation that 2023 will be a year in which the company drives more cost efficiencies. We're also reiterating a price target on the stock of $140 per share. Fourth-quarter results During Amazon's earnings conference call Thursday evening, CEO Andy Jassy said he intends to drive growth in the North American retail business through faster shipping times and customer experience improvements, gain market share in the grocery sector by offering omnichannel (online and physical store) services, continue to help AWS customers find ways to spend less, and increase the value of a Prime subscription through more entertainment content and new services like the recently launched RX Pass . Management also noted that the company's operating income was negatively impacted by three large items, which together added approximately $2.7 billion in costs for the quarter. One of the three was a $640 million severance charge, a direct result of the roughly 18,000 jobs the company eliminated last month. The second was a $720 million charge tied to impairments of property and equipment, as well as operating leases. This was related to Amazon closing down some Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go physical stores, though we appreciate Amazon shutting down stores that offer lower growth potential. There was also an impairment on capitalized costs and the associated value of leased buildings. The third item was a $1.3 billion expense related to increased reserves for general product and automobile self-insurance liabilities. Without these charges, operating income would have been $5.4 billion, or double what was reported. A key focus for investors is likely to be around the slowdown at AWS, which, along with advertising, has historically served as a profit engine for the company. But the revenue miss wasn't a surprise in the aftermath of Microsoft's Azure results . The cloud computing industry has broadly been contending with a trend of customers looking for ways to optimize spending in a challenging macroeconomic environment — a development management has been flagging for months. Management noted its customer optimization efforts should be a headwind to AWS growth "in at least the next couple of quarters." That's disappointing, but also reflective of why so many market players entered the year bearish on cloud computing. In January, AWS revenues grew at a mid-teen percentage rate year-over-year, management said. First quarter outlook Amazon is generally conservative when providing financial guidance, but the outlook Thursday left more to be desired. Management expects net sales to be between $121 billion and $126 billion in the first quarter of this year, representing growth of about 4% to 8% year-over-year. The $123.5 billion midpoint of this range was below analysts' forecasts of about $125 billion. The operating income forecast was light, too, with management guiding to a range of $0 to $4 billion. This $2 billion midpoint is below estimates of $4 billion. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long AMZN. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . 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