Amazon Stock Rises on Earnings Beats and Cloud Growth

Amazon (AMZN) shares jumped in extended trading on Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected third-quarter results driven by growth in its cloud and advertising businesses.

The company reported net sales of $158.9 billion, up 11% from the same period last year and above Wall Street's expected $157.3 billion, according to analyst estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. Earnings per share (EPS) rose more than 50% to $1.43, beating analysts' forecasts.

Revenue at Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud computing unit, rose 19% to $27.4 billion, roughly in line with expectations. The division's revenue growth has accelerated this year and is now in the high teens after holding in the low teens in 2023.

Amazon forecast fourth-quarter net sales would be in a range of $181.5 billion to $188.5 billion, with the midpoint slightly below the $186.4 billion analysts expected, according to Visible Alpha had.

Amazon shares rose 6% in late trading on Thursday after falling more than 3% in the regular session. Still, shares rose 22% for the year before a post-earnings surge.

Advertising revenue rose 19% to $14.3 billion, roughly in line with analysts' expectations for one of Amazon's greenest and fastest-growing revenue streams.

Capital expenditure (CapEx) increased 5% year over year to $22.2 billion. Amazon, which is in an AI arms race with cloud computing rivals Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOG; GOOGL), has significantly increased its spending on data center infrastructure this year.

correction: The low end of Amazon's fourth-quarter revenue forecast was $181.5 billion. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said it was $183.5 billion.