Amazon Shares Soar 5% After Strong Q3 Earnings Report
Amazon’s market cap is expected to surge after the online retail giant’s third-quarter earnings exceeded Wall Street’s expectations. In premarket trading on Friday, Amazon shares climbed 5%, reaching above $126. If these gains hold until the closing bell, Amazon’s value will increase by approximately $60 billion to $1.3 trillion.
The surge in stock price followed the release of Amazon’s Q3 report, which revealed earnings of 94 cents per share and revenues of $143 billion. Both figures surpassed analysts’ forecasts. Additionally, sales for Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s cloud computing division, rose 12%, in line with expectations.
Analysts believe that AWS’s consecutive quarter of growth contributed to the stock-price surge. This comes as Wall Street focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, which had varying impacts on Microsoft and Alphabet shares this week.
According to Sophie Lund-Yates, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, the importance of AWS to Amazon’s bottom line cannot be understated. She explains that the thin margins in Amazon’s retail business make the cloud division even more crucial compared to other tech companies with less capital-intensive business models.
Amazon shares have rallied this year, along with other mega-cap tech companies known as the “Magnificent Seven.” After a disappointing 2022, Amazon’s stock has increased by 42% year-to-date as of Thursday’s close.
Original Source: [Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-stock-earnings-report-q3-call-live-updates-2023-10?utm_medium=ingest&utm_source=markets)