Amazon reported 3Q24 earnings and revenue that exceeded expectations, fueled by strong growth in cloud computing and advertising. Amazon stock rose about 5% higher in extended trading of Thursday’s session.
Earnings per share in the third quarter were $1.43, beating a $1.14 per share projected by LSEG. Meanwhile, revenue for the quarter was $158.88 billion, also above expectations of LSEG which polled at $157.2 billion.
For cloud services, Amazon Web Services revenue was reported at $27.4 billion, in line with StreetAccount estimates. This quarter sales grew 19%, which is faster than the same quarter last year at 12%. Amazon’s cloud sector experienced slower growth last year, mainly due to customer decreasing demand amidst economic uncertainty.
Still, Amazon Web Service is lagging behind its top competitor, as Microsoft’s various cloud services like Azure revenue hiked 33%, and revenue from Alphabet’s Google Cloud soared 35%.
Advertising, Amazon’s second triumph card in this quarter, also saw 19% growth in sales to $14.3 during the three-month period that ended in September, leading ahead of Amazon’s core retail business.
In the online ad sector, Amazon grew the fastest, while the company’s ad business may still pale in comparison to other ad giants like Meta or Google. Meta’s 3Q ad revenue growth of 18.7% was just shy of Amazon’s number, while Google’s ad revenue in 3Q recorded a 15% growth.
Amazon’s focus on efficiency has yielded a fruitful result, as operating income during 3Q surged 56% year-over-year to $17.4 billion, largely due to the company’s effort to trim down costs and lift the bottom line.
