Amazon stock dips even as earnings beat expectations with strong cloud growth
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks during a keynote address at AWS re:Invent 2024, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services, at The Venetian Las Vegas on December 3, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Noah Berger | Getty Images
Amazon on Wednesday posted better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the first quarter, and reported cloud sales that topped analysts’ expectations.
The stock fell more than 1% in extended trading.
Here’s how the company did, compared with estimates from analysts polled by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $2.78 vs. $1.64
- Revenue: $181.52 vs. $177.30 billion
Wall Street was also looking at other key revenue numbers:
- Amazon Web Services: $37.59 billion vs. $36.64 billion, according to StreetAccount
- Advertising: $17.24 billion vs. $16.87 billion, according to StreetAccount
Revenue in Amazon’s cloud segment increased 28% year over year to $37.59 billion, marking its fastest growth in more than three years. Wall Street had expected AWS sales to grow 26%.
Amazon and other big tech companies have been trying to justify their hefty artificial intelligence spending, which could approach $700 billion in 2026. Amazon in February projected its capital expenditures will reach $200 billion in 2026, a sharp increase from last year.
The company said capital spending in the first quarter reached $44.2 billion, which was above Wall Street’s projected $43.6 billion, according to FactSet.
For the current quarter, Amazon said it expects sales to come in between $194 billion and $199 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG were expecting $188.9 billion.
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