Amazon Q3 Sales, Outlook Miss Street Estimates; Shares Down 6%

(RTTNews) - Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) Thursday reported a surge in profit for the third quarter, driven largely by a 29 percent jump in revenues. Earnings for the quarter trounced Wall Street estimates. However, the tech giant's stock slipped more than 6 percent in extended session after revenues for the quarter fell short of expectations and on weak outlook for the current holiday quarter.

Seattle, Washington-based Amazon reported third-quarter profit of $2.88 billion or $5.75 per share, up from $256 million or $0.52 per share last year. On average, 42 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $3.14 per share for the quarter.

Amazon's sales for the quarter jumped 29 percent to $56.58 billion from $43.74 billion a year ago. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $57.10 billion for the quarter.

Sales from North America jumped 35 percent to $34.35 billion from $25.45 billion last year, while international sales rose 13 percent to $15.55 billion. Meanwhile, revenues of Amazon Web Services, Amazon's cloud service division, surged 46 percent to $6.68 billion.

"Amazon Business has now reached a $10 billion annual sales run rate and is serving millions of private and public-sector organizations in eight countries," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. "And we're not slowing down - Amazon Business is adding customers rapidly, including large educational institutions, local governments, and more than half of the Fortune 100."

Looking forward to the fourth quarter, the company expects sales of $66.5 billion to $72.5 billion. Analysts currently estimate revenues of $73.89 billion.

AMZN closed Thursday's trading at $1,782.17, up $117.97 or 7.09%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, slipped $112.17 or 6.29% in the after-hours trade.