Amazon doubles down on profits, but misses estimates on revenue

Amazon doubled consensus estimates on profits in its second quarter, as results released tonight revealed a staggering 1,157.5 per cent increase year-on-year in earnings per share.

The company reported shareholder earnings for the quarter at $5.07 (£3.86), outperforming estimates collated by S&P Global Market Intelligence which predicted $2.54. In the same quarter in 2017, Amazon had listed profits of just $0.40 per share.

Net income surged more than six-fold to $2.5bn, powered largely by the growth of its cloud computing business Amazon Web Services which grew 80 per cent, and a series of acquisitions including health-conscious supermarket chain Whole Foods.

Revenue for Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing business which takes the largest market share globally above rivals like Google and Microsoft, soared 49 per cent to $6.11bn to beat estimates of $6bn.

However in a slightly mixed turn of events, the e-commerce goliath reported a 39 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue for the quarter at $52.9bn, narrowly missing estimates of $53.4bn.

Analysts said the company’s results came as “little surprise” given the evident growth of its various offerings, and commitment to customer loyalty even through loss-making ventures such as same-day delivery.

Amazon’s total costs increased nearly 37 per cent in the three months ending in June to $49.9bn, as the firm invested heavily into its premium service Prime across its online video, warehouse and delivery infrastructure.

Liam Chennels, a director at Retail Week’s Tech effort, said “amid a retail-apocalypse, Amazon shows no signs of danger”.

The company forecast operating income of between $1.4bn and $2.4bn for its third quarter, trouncing previous estimates of $843m.

Amazon’s global ecommerce revenue is expected to grow more than 28 per cent by the end of 2018 to reach $394bn, according to Emarketer. In the US alone, it will have a 49.1 per cent share of all e-commerce spending.

Its global net digital ad revenue is set to grow 58 per cent in 2018, giving it a 1.2 per cent share of the worldwide digital ad market. Comparatively, Google owns 31 per cent of the same market.

Investors were eagerly awaiting Amazon’s results after fellow tech giant Facebook’s share price plunged more than 19 per cent today after a lacklustre second quarter. Amazon’s share price was down almost three per cent as markets closed, but gained that back and more in after-hours trading.

Amazon briefly broke past the $900bn market capitalisation mark last week, joining Apple in the upper tier of tech companies racing to be the first with a trillion-dollar valuation.