Amazon reports better-than-expected revenue and profits for 2Q, sending its stock higher

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Amazon on Thursday posted better-than-expected revenue and profits for the second quarter, sending its stock higher in after-hours trading

NEW YORK — Amazon on Thursday posted better-than-expected revenue and profits for the second quarter, sending its stock higher in after-hours trading.

The e-commerce giant earned $6.7 billion, or 65 cents per share, for the three-month period ended June 30, much higher the $3.64 billion industry analysts surveyed by FactSet had anticipated.

Amazon had reported a loss during the same period last year, driven by a big loss on its investment in electric vehicle start-up Rivian Automotive. Its profits for the second quarter include a pre-tax valuation gain of $0.2 billion in its Rivian investment.

The company, which has been on a cost-cutting spree over the past few months, said overall revenue was $134.4 billion, up 11% from the same period last year and beating analyst expectations of 8.5% growth.

“It was another strong quarter of progress for Amazon,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement.

Amazon's cloud unit AWS, which has been closely watched by investors, posted $22.1 billion in revenue.

Jassy said growth in the cloud business, which had slowed since last year as companies cut back on costs, “stabilized as customers started shifting from cost optimization to new workload deployment.”

AWS grew by 12%, slower than 16% in the first quarter and 33% during the same time last year. Part of the slowdown can be explained by the fact that AWS is the market leader in the cloud arena, which makes it challenging to sustain the higher levels of growth it had in the earlier days.

In an effort to lure in more customers and gain a competitive edge in the generative AI race where it seems