Amazon in Q2 loss, but revenue better than expected

Amazon reported better-than-expected second-quarter revenue and raised Wall Street hopes with an optimistic outlook.

The company reported a loss of $2 billion, or $0.20 per share, for the quarter ended June 30, compared with net income of $7.8 billion, or $0.76 per diluted share, in the year-ago period. The net loss includes a pre-tax valuation loss of $3.9 billion included in non-operating expenses from its common stock investment in Rivian Automotive.

Net revenue increased 7% to $121.2 billion, compared with $113.1 billion in the second quarter of 2021. Analysts had expected revenue of $119.09 billion.

Amazon’s lucrative cloud service, AWS, maintained its momentum in the quarter, generating operating income of $5.72 billion on revenue of $19.74 billion, up from operating profit of $4.19 billion on revenue of $14.81 billion a year ago, for a revenue growth rate of 33.3%.

Amazon’s advertising revenue posted $8.76 billion in revenue, up from $7.45 billion a year ago

Amazon said it expects to post third-quarter revenue of $125 billion to $130 billion. Analysts were expecting sales of $126.4 billion.

“Despite continued inflationary pressures in fuel, energy, and transportation costs, we’re making progress on the more controllable costs we referenced last quarter, particularly improving the productivity of our fulfillment network,” said Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO. “We’re also seeing revenue accelerate as we continue to make Prime even better for members, both investing in faster shipping speeds, and adding unique benefits such as free delivery from Grubhub for a year, exclusive access to NFL Thursday Night Football games starting September 15, and releasing the highly anticipated series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Sept. 2.”

In reviewing highlights from the quarter, Amazon said that Prime members worldwide shopped more on Prime Day 2022 than any other Prime Day event, purchasing more than 300 million items and saving more than $1.7 billion, according to the company. On July 12 and July 13, Prime members worldwide purchased more than 100,000 items per minute.

The company noted that it continued to expand its grocery store footprint during the quarter, opening 12 Amazon Fresh stores across the U.S. and the U.K., and introduced new innovations to improve the shopping experience for customers, including the next-generation Amazon Dash Cart. Amazon also opened its first brick-and-mortar apparel store, Amazon Style, during the quarter.

[Read More: First Look: Amazon’s first-ever physical clothing store opens]

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.