Amazon Spikes 14% After It Reports Surprise Q2 Profit Of $92M, Better-Than-Expected Revenue Of $23.18B

Following the cessation of regular trading today, Amazon announced that it earned $0.19 per share in its second quarter, on revenue of $23.18 billion. The street had expected Amazon to lose $0.14 per share on revenue of $22.39 billion.

Following its earnings smash, Amazon is up more than 14 percent after-hours. The company shed more than one percent of its value in regular trading, amid a negative market day. Amazon had estimated that it would have revenue of $20.6 billion to $22.8 billion during the three-month cycle.

Quite obviously, Amazon rocked the quarter.

Amazon generated operating cash flow of $8.98 billion during the period, and earned net income using normal accounting techniques of $92 million. The firm wrapped the quarter with $10.27 billion in cash and equivalents.

For reference, in its sequentially preceding quarter, Amazon had revenue of $22.72 billion, and negative earnings-per-share of $0.12.

AWS

Amazon’s AWS cloud compute and storage division had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, up sharply from its year-ago period, during which it brought in just a nudge over the $1 billion mark.

That nearly $2 billion in revenue led to operating income of $391 million for the quarter, again up sharply from a year-ago operating income tally of $77 million. The idea that AWS was a money pit, or perhaps breakeven, continues to be proved increasingly wrong.

Growth

Amazon’s top line grew 20 percent in the quarter, a massive figure given the maturity of Amazon itself, and many of its revenue streams. The street had priced into Amazon presumed top line deceleration, and continued losses.

In the United States, Amazon grew its revenue from $10.99 billion in the year-ago quarter, to $13.79 billion in its most recent. Internationally, revenue growth was slower, picking up a slimmer boost from $7.34 billion a year to, to $7.56 billion today.

Regarding profit, Amazon lost $126 million, meaning that its recent-quarter profit was a more than $200 million swing in margin.

Walmart
In the wake of its massive earnings beat, Amazon is now worth roughly $20 billion more than Walmart. The comparison between the two companies, which are rivals in a number of ways, is now decidedly tilted in the digital company’s favor.

Amazon is now worth north of $250 billion, while Walmart entered into after-hours trading worth a more modest $233.5 billion.

Summation

Amazon killed this quarter. With $0.19 EPS in actual profit, Amazon surprised investors by being profitable. Thanks to a marked increase in net sales, with particularly strong revenue from AWS, Amazon proved once again that when it wants to, it can indeed turn a profit.