Amazon (AMZN) stock jumped late Thursday after the tech behemoth reported third-quarter results ahead of Wall Street views. Amazon’s cloud business delivered the sales growth acceleration investors have been looking for over the last few quarters.
Amazon said that it earned an adjusted $1.95 per share for the September-ended quarter, up 33% from a year earlier. That easily beat the $1.57 that analysts polled by FactSet were forecasting. Sales increased 13% to 180.2 billion, compared to analyst estimates of $177.91 billion.
Amazon’s closely-watched AWS cloud business grew sales 20% to $33 billion. Analysts were looking for $32.4 billion in sales, representing 18.1% growth.
“We continue to see strong momentum and growth across Amazon as AI drives meaningful improvements in every corner of our business,” Chief Executive Andy Jassy said in a news release. “AWS is growing at a pace we haven’t seen since 2022. We continue to see strong demand in AI and core infrastructure, and we’ve been focused on accelerating capacity – adding more than 3.8 gigawatts in the past 12 months.”
Analysts have been debating when AWS growth could reaccelerate back to above 20%. The majority did not expect Amazon to reach that growth level before 2026, according to FactSet data.
The AWS results could help ease investor concerns that AWS is losing its market-leading cloud position because of AI-driven gains by Microsoft (MSFT) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL). Those fears have weighed on shares this year.
Meanwhile, Amazon guided for sales of $209.5 billion for the important December-ending quarter, based on the midpoint of its range. The company expects operation income of $23.5 billion at the midpoint of its range. Prior to the company posting results, analysts were projecting Q4 revenue of $208.41 billion and operating income of $23.8 billion.
On the stock market today, Amazon stock rose more than 10% to 246.71 in after-hours trades.
Amazon Stock Scuffling In 2025
Prior to earnings, Amazon stock fell by roughly 2% in regular trading. Shares are ahead just 2.2% year to date, significantly underperforming a 16% rally for the S&P 500.
Ahead of the company’s report, Amazon shares were in a cup base with a 238.85 buy point, according to IBD MarketSurge.
The IBD Stock Checkup tool, meanwhile, shows Amazon stock holds an IBD Composite Rating of 89 out of a best-possible 99. The score combines five separate proprietary ratings into one rating. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better.
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