Amazon soars on big revenue growth

(NASDAQ:AMZN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. Wall Street had been expecting a down period for Amazon, with analysts polled by Thomson Reuters looking for net income of 3 cents per share.

Operating income is slated to be between $300 million and $1.65 billion, compared with $1.3 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Shares of Gigamon Inc. rose almost 6% late Thursday after the company said private-equity firm Elliott Management had agreed to buy it for $1.6 billion. In particular, we believe that the growth of Prime will continue to boost subscription revenue in the quarters ahead, all the more so because of the slew of new devices that Amazon is releasing. Amazon.com’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.8% compared to the same quarter a year ago. Amazon had almost 542,000 employees at the end of last month, about 160,000 more than it had the year before. Shares are trading around $1,000 a pop and are up about 30 percent this year.

Finally, investors will key in on worldwide expansion numbers. This was a sharp increase on the $541 million loss the division posted past year. Analysts had predicted just over $42 billion in revenue. Among the third-party reports, RedSeer Consulting said Flipkart increased its market share in terms of gross sales to 58% this year during its Big Billion Days sale from 52% last year, while Amazon saw its share of the market go down to 26% compared to 32% last year during their Great Indian Festival. That is being driven in part by record store closings, note SunTrust analysts, something that keeps people shopping online.

The company is rapidly growing: It paid almost US$14 billion ($20.5b) this summer for organic grocer Whole Foods; announced a series of new voice-activated Echo devices; and kicked off a public hunt for a place to build its second headquarters.

The quarter included about a month of sales for upscale grocer Whole Foods, which Amazon acquired for $13.7 billion in August. Executives could provide updates on their plans to install Prime membership in store and other efforts.

Amazon’s annual Business Prime Shipping memberships will be priced in tiers with support for 10 users for $499, 100 users for $1,299 and over 100 users for 10,099. Studio head Roy Price left the company amid sexual-harassment allegations, which Amazon had known about for months.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO, in past announcements has touted Amazon Studios projects and has taken a hands-on approach with its Hollywood ambitions. But the studio has stumbled when it comes to producing content that attracts audiences and buzz. It expects to employ 50,000 in its second headquarters. Amazon said it received 238 proposals from across North America. India especially will be in focus, considering the company’s massive investment there.