Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) on Thursday reported its earnings and revenue, which exceeded analysts' expectations, allowing its shares to jump upwards in the course of trading after the close of the trading session. This indicates the strengthening of market positions of its core retail business and its new division of cloud services.
The results represent a sharp contrast to the disappointing fourth quarter, the results of which were announced in January and caused concerns in some of the shareholders at the relatively weak performance of the company's profitability.
The cost of shares of the largest online retailer in the world has jumped nearly 13 % to $ 679 after the official closing of Thursday trading session.
The reporting of Amazon also allows to ease market fears of a slowdown in technology and networking companies that have emerged amid the results of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), which did not meet the expectations.
In addition, the company presented a positive outlook for the current quarter, expecting to receive revenue of $ 28- $ 30.5 billion, compared with analysts’ expected $ 28.33 billion.
Amazon growth in general is impressive for a company of this size - its revenue for the quarter increased by 28.2 % to $ 29.13 billion - the most significant increase in the index since 2012.
Special attention, however, draws Amazon Web Services division (AWS), specializing in cloud products and services. Sales there rose 64 % to $ 2.56 billion, while operating income rose more than tripled, to $ 604 million.
Despite the fact that the profitability of this division decreased slightly compared with the previous quarter, it remained at a fairly high level - 27.9 %. In the previous quarter, this indicator was 28.5 %, and the year before - 16.9 %.
Amazon net sales in North America - the largest market for the company in terms of revenue - rose in the first quarter by 26.8 % to $ 17 billion.
The net profit in the quarter ended March 31 was $ 513 million, or $ 1.07 per share. A year earlier, the company recorded a loss of $ 57 million, or 12 cents per share.
Analysts on average expected earnings of 58 cents per share on revenue of $ 27.98 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.