Amazon blows past earnings forecasts

Amazon on Thursday posted its eight straight quarter of net profitability, fueled by growth in e-commerce sales and its lucrative cloud service platform, Amazon Web Services.



Amazon easily topped earning expectations for its first quarter, ended March 31, reporting $1.48 per share, above the $1.12 Wall Street expected. Net income rose to $724 million from $513 million in the year-ago period.



Total revenue increased 22.6% to $35.71 billion, above the $35.30 billion that analysts were forecasting. Amazon Web Services accounted for $3.7 billion, up from $2.6 billion in the year-ago period. Sales in North America, Amazon’s biggest market, increased 23.5% to $20.99 billion.



In the statement released with its earnings, CEO Jeff Bezos commented on Amazon’s growth in India.



“Our India team is moving fast and delivering for customers and sellers,” he said. “The team has increased Prime selection by 75% since launching the program nine months ago, increased fulfillment capacity for sellers by 26% already this year, announced 18 Indian Original TV series, and just last week introduced a Fire TV Stick optimized for Indian customers with integrated voice search in English and Hindi.”



Bezos said that Amazon.in is the most visited and the fastest growing marketplace in India.



“It’s still Day 1 for e-commerce in India, and I assure you that we’ll keep investing in technology and infrastructure while working hard to invent on behalf of our customers and small,” he said.



Amazon forecast sales for the second quarter of between $35.25 billion and $37.75 billion, less than analysts expected, which includes an unfavorable impact of about $720 million from foreign exchange rates.