Investing.com - Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) handily beat expectations, reporting soaring sales during the second quarter as people hunkered down at home and shopped online.
The e-commerce giant reported second quarter reported earnings per share of $10.3 on revenue of $88.91 billion. Analysts polled by Investing.com anticipated EPS of $1.38 on revenue of $81.09 billion.
For the third quarter, Amazon said it expects net sales in a range of $87 billion and $93 billion, which would be up 24% to 33% from the same period last year.
“This was another highly unusual quarter, and I couldn’t be more proud of and grateful to our employees around the globe,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, in a statement.
Amazon.com shares are up 65% from the beginning of the year but still down 8.76% from a 52-week high of $3,344.00 set on July 13. They are outperforming the Nasdaq, which is up 18% from the start of the year.
Amazon.com shares gained 5% in after-hours trading following the report.
"Amazon’s business model perfectly positions it to expand its e-commerce dominance even more broadly as the global Covid-19 pandemic continues to flare," said Haris Anwar, an Investing.com analyst. "Expectations of explosive growth in sales have fueled a massive rally in Amazon shares, and we believe it has further upside. Amazon is among the few companies which will retain their revenue and customer momentum even when the pandemic is contained. That’s why Amazon stock is a great bet to benefit from the accelerating digitization of the global economy.
Thursday was a busy day for big tech earnings, with reports also expected from Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google's Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)
Amazon.com's report follows an earnings beat by Visa A on Tuesday, with EPS of $1.06 on revenue of $4.84 billion, compared to forecasts EPS of $1.03 on revenue of $4.82 billion.
Verizon had beat expectations on July 24 with second quarter EPS of $1.18 on revenue of $30.45 billion, compared to forecast for EPS of $1.15 on revenue of $29.92 billion.
Stay up-to-date on all of the upcoming earnings reports by visiting Investing.com's earnings calendar