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Why Amazon Earnings Are So Great

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Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) reported second quarter financial results after markets closed Thursday. The company reported $5.07 in earnings per share (EPS) on $52.9 billion in revenue, compared with consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that called for $2.50 in EPS on $53.27 billion in revenue. The same period from last year had $0.40 in EPS on $37.95 billion in revenue.

During the quarter, Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenues increased 49.0% to $6.11 billion, up from $4.10 billion in the same period last year, with operating income of $1.64 billion.

In terms of its other segments Amazon reported:

  • North American net sales increased 43.8% to $32.17 billion, with operating income of $1.84 billion.
  • International sales increased 27.2% to $14.61 billion, with an operating loss of $494 million.

As for guidance, the company expects to see net sales in the range of $54.0 billion to $57.5 billion, with operating income in the range of $1.4 billion to $2.4 billion in the third quarter. There are consensus estimates calling for $1.72 in EPS on $58.0 billion in revenue for the coming quarter.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, commented:

We want customers to be able to use Alexa wherever they are. There are now tens of thousands of developers across more than 150 countries building new devices using the Alexa Voice Service, and the number of Alexa-enabled devices has more than tripled in the past year. Our partners are creating a wide variety of new Alexa-enabled devices and experiences, including soundbars from Polk and Sonos; headphones from Jabra; smart home devices from ecobee and First Alert; Windows 10 PCs from Acer, HP, and Lenovo; and cars from automakers including BMW, Ford, and Toyota.

Shares of Amazon closed Thursday at $1,808.00, with a consensus analyst price target of $1,884.74 and a 52-week range of $931.75 to $1,863.84. Following the announcement, the stock was up over 2% at $1,850.00 in the after-hours session.

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