Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) stock jumped over 2% in intraday trading Wednesday after the tech giant posted better-than-expected Q1 earnings.
Amazon (AMZN) reported its first-quarter earnings after the market closed Tuesday, beating analysts’ expectations driven by robust growth in its Amazon Web Services (AWS) and advertising revenue.
The e-commerce giant announced earnings of 98 cents per share for the quarter ending in March, with sales totaling $143.3 billion, marking a notable 13% year-over-year increase. Analysts, on average, had anticipated earnings of 84 cents per share on sales of $142.7 billion, according to FactSet data. Comparatively, in the same period a year earlier, Amazon reported earnings of 31 cents per share on sales of $127.4 billion.
CEO Andy Jassy attributed the strong quarterly performance to AWS growth, partly driven by new artificial intelligence features and advancements in its advertising business.
He said,
“The combination of companies renewing their infrastructure modernization efforts and the appeal of AWS’s AI capabilities is reaccelerating AWS’s growth rate.”
Sales from Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud-computing division, surged 17% year-over-year to reach $25 billion in the quarter, beating consensus expectations of around 15% year-over-year sales growth for the segment.
Amazon forecasts revenue for the current quarter to range between $144 billion and $149 billion, signaling a growth rate of 7% to 11% from the year-ago quarter. However, this guidance fell short of analysts’ expectations, which had anticipated revenue of $150.27 billion for the quarter.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Stock Price Action
AMZN stock gained 2.29% to close at $179 on Wednesday. Its value has risen by 1.36% this week. Trading activity has witnessed 93,481,387 (93.48 million) shares changing hands, well above the average daily volume of 43.09 million.
