This is Why Amazon Shares Are Soaring This Morning
Neil Weilheimer
Managing Editor
Shares of Amazon soared in early Friday trading as the retail giant broke the $2 billion barrier in quarterly profit for the first time in its history.
The Jeff Bezos-led company’s stock jumped more than $37 a share when it announced after market close Thursday that it earned $2.5 billion in profits for the three-month period ending in June. By comparison, it posted $197 million for the same period in 2017.
The Seattle tech juggernaut, which also owns Zappos.com, surprised Wall Street with its better-than-expected earnings. Much of the retailer’s success, according to the company, stemmed from continued growth in its Prime subscription service, as well as its cloud computing business, known as Amazon Web Services.
Though company sales of $52.9 billion came in lower than the Street’s expectation of $53.35 billion, investors responded favorably to the e-tailer’s overall performance.
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The stock rally came at a fortunate time for the company, which in recent months has been in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump.
The president has been highly critical of Amazon, owner of The Washington Post, the news outlet that frequently publishes unfavorable stories about him.
On Monday, the retail firm again became the subject of Trump’s ire when he tweeted that Amazon was using the U.S. Postal Service “at a fraction of real cost, as their ‘delivery boy.’” Soon after, the e-commerce powerhouse’s shares dipped 2 percent.
Separately, Trump tweeted: “In my opinion The Washington Post is nothing more than an expensive (the paper loses a fortune) lobbyist for Amazon. Is it used as protection against antitrust claims which many feel should be brought?”
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