SEATTLE — Amazon.com reported Tuesday a decline in earnings for the second quarter as the e-commerce giant continued to spend heavily on its distribution network as well as new products and services.
Still, both revenue and earnings for the period came in ahead of Wall Street’s expectations, with sales surging more than 50 percent for the period. Amazon also gave a revenue forecast for the current quarter that was ahead of analyst estimates, giving the stock a five percent boost in after-hours trading Tuesday afternoon.
The shares had closed the regular session up fractionally at $214.18 and have risen nearly 19 percent since the first of the year.
For the quarter ended June 30, Amazon reported net income of $191 million, or 41 cents a share, compared with net income of $207 million, or 45 cents a share, for the same period last year.
Revenue jumped 51 percent to $9.91 billion.
Analysts were expecting earnings of 35 cents a share on revenue of $9.37 billion for the period, according to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters.
Operating income fell 26 percent to $201 million, which meant an operating margin of two percent for the quarter. The company had previously said it expected an operating margin in the range of one percent-2.5 percent, and Wall Street analysts were looking for a figure on the high side of that range.
Amazon said it expects revenue to come in the range of $10.3 billion to $11.1 billion for the third quarter. Analysts had been expecting revenue of $10.35 billion for the period.
Operating income is projected to come in between $20 million and $170 million. Analysts were expecting about $279 million.
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