Amazon Q1 Profit Surges - Update

(RTTNews) - Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) Thursday reported a first-quarter profit that more than doubled from a year ago, driven largely by a huge 46 percent growth in revenues. Shares of the online retailer gained 6 percent in extended session.

Seattle, Washington-based Amazon reported first-quarter profit of $1.63 billion or $3.27 per share, up from $724 million or $1.48 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.27 per share for the quarter.

Amazon's sales for the quarter surged 43 percent to $51.04 billion from $35.71 billion a year ago. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $49.87 billion for the quarter.

Sales from North America jumped 46 percent to $30.73 billion from $20.99 billion last year, while international sales rose 34 percent to $29.58 billion.

Meanwhile, revenues of Amazon Web Services, Amazon's cloud service division, surged 49 percent to $5.44 billion.

"The AWS services are by far the most evolved and most functionality-rich. AWS lets developers do more and be nimbler, and it continues to get even better every day. That's why you're seeing this remarkable acceleration in AWS growth, now for two quarters in a row," CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement.

Looking forward to the second quarter, the company expects sales of $51.0 billion to $54.0 billion. Analysts currently estimate revenues of $52.2 billion.

Separately, the U.S. National Football League announced that it reached a deal with Amazon to stream Thursday night games during the 2018 and 2019 seasons on Amazon's Prime Video.

"Amazon was a tremendous partner for Thursday Night Football in 2017 and as we continue our mission of delivering NFL games to fans whether they watch on television or on digital platforms, we are excited to work with them again for the next two seasons," said Brian Rolapp, Chief Media and Business Officer for the NFL.

Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

AMZN closed Thursday's trading at $1,517.96, up $57.79 or 3.96%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further gained $95.04 or 6.26% in the after-hours trade.