Amazon's Q3 earnings report beats expectations; shares gain

Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) reported third-quarter earnings that surpassed analyst estimates, driving its stock up 5.7% in after-hours trading despite issuing lower-than-expected guidance for the upcoming quarter.

The e-commerce and cloud computing giant posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.43, beating the analyst consensus of $1.14 by $0.29. Revenue for the quarter came in at $158.9 billion, topping estimates of $157.25 billion and marking an 11% increase YoY.

Amazon's cloud division, AWS, continued its strong performance with sales increasing 19% YoY to $27.5 billion. The North America segment saw sales rise 9% to $95.5 billion, while International segment sales grew 12% to $35.9 billion.

Despite the positive results, Amazon's fourth-quarter revenue guidance of $181.5-188.5 billion fell short of the $186.36 billion analyst consensus at the midpoint. The company expects operating income between $16.0 billion and $20.0 billion for Q4.

"As we get into the holiday season, we're excited about what we have in store for customers," said Andy Jassy, Amazon President&CEO. "We kicked off the holiday season with our biggest-ever Prime Big Deal Days and the launch of an all-new Kindle lineup that is significantly outperforming our expectations."

The company highlighted its continued investment in AI capabilities, including the expansion of its generative AI shopping assistant, Rufus, to several new countries and the launch of new AI-powered features for sellers and advertisers.