Amid Cost Cutting, Amazon Stock Jumps As First-Quarter Results Beat
Amazon reported first-quarter earnings that topped estimates, though cloud computing growth slowed.
Amazon.com reported earnings for the first quarter that exceeded Wall Street expectations, despite cost-cutting measures by the ecommerce giant. Amazon's stock rose as cloud computing revenue growth accelerated less than expected.
Amazon reported earnings of 31 cents adjusted after the close of the market.
AMZN's revenue grew 9%, to $127.4 Billion. Analysts expected Amazon to post earnings of 21 cents per share on revenue $124.6 billion.
Amazon Web Services sales grew 16%, to $21.4 billion. This is a slower growth than the 37% increase in the previous period. Analysts expected AWS to grow by 15% in the March quarter.
Amazon Stock: Cost-cutting Moves
Ad revenue increased 23%, to $9.51 Billion. This was well above the $9.05 Billion estimate.
Amazon's mid-point forecast for the June quarter revenue is $130 billion, which is in line with analyst expectations.
Amazon shares jumped by 11% in extended trading today, to near 122.
Amazon announced in January that it would cut 18,000 jobs, the biggest reduction ever seen by the company. In March, Amazon announced that it would cut another 9,000 positions.
Amazon's shares were up by 25% before the earnings report. According to IBD Stock Checkup, Amazon stock has a Relative strength rating of 43 out a maximum possible 99.