Amazon Q2 Earnings Miss Street - Update

(RTTNews) - Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) Thursday reported an increase in profit for the second quarter, as revenues grew 20 percent reflecting strong performance at cloud business. However, earnings for the quarter fell short of Wall Street estimates, while revenues exceeded expectations.

Seattle, Washington-based Amazon reported second-quarter profit of $2.63 billion or $5.22 per share, up from $2.53 billion or $5.07 per share last year. On average, 43 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $5.57 per share for the quarter.

Amazon's sales for the quarter jumped 20 percent to $63.40 billion from $52.89 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $62.48 billion for the quarter.

Sales from North America jumped 20 percent to $38.65 billion from $32.17 billion last year, while international sales rose 12 percent to $16.37 billion. Meanwhile, revenues of Amazon Web Services, Amazon's cloud service division, jumped 37 percent to $8.38 billion, lower than analysts estimate of $8.48 billion for the segment.

Looking forward to the third quarter, the company expects sales of $66.0 billion to $70.0 billion. Analysts currently estimate revenues of $67.27 billion.

AMZN closed Thursday's trading at $1,973.82, down $26.99 or 1.35%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further slipped $49.82 or 2.52% in the after-hours trade.