Amazon Knocked Q2 Out Of The Park

Amazon.com Inc AMZN reported blowout profits, topping sales estimates and issuing strong guidance. The latest results included the titan's biggest earnings beat since its 2020's fourth quarter as it successfully returned to double-digit growth. Unsurprisingly, Amazon stock rose went up more than 10% in extended trading, rising 52% year to date, Apple Inc AAPL who also reported its fiscal third quarter results also topped both top and bottom-line estimates thanks to its service business, but this was overshadowed third consecutive quarter of revenue declines with its stock declining 2.5% after-hours upon the results.

Second Quarter Highlights

Amazon generated $134.4 billion in revenue that grew 11% YoY and resulted in a net income of $6.7 billion, or 65 cents a share. What a difference compared to 2022's comparable quarter when Amazon made a loss of $2 billion, or 20 cents a share, owed to its markup of EV startup, Rivian Automotive RIVN. Amazon did an efficient job at cutting costs with global headcount falling 4% YoY to 1.46 million people as of the end of the reported quarter, having cut 27,000 jobs since last fall in largest layoffs since the company's inception.

Segments

AWS growth stabilized as customers put cost management aside to focus on new workloads, leading to a 12% in revenue to $22.1 billion that topped Wall Street's estimate of $21.8 billion. Still, it was a deceleration compared to previous quarter's 16% growth while also being the slowest growth rate since 2015, which is when Amazon started disclosing cloud revenue. During the reported quarter, AWS made 70% of the company's operating profit that amounted to $7.7 billion. CEO Andy Jassy emphasized that although the company's big bet on AI still hasn't resulted in faster gains for AWS, prospects remain bright as the tech giant continues to experiment with the e-commerce shopping experience and using it to sum up customer feedback on products. Moreover, Jassy noted that generative AI releases strengthened the leadership position of its cloud business that competes with Alphabet Inc GOOG Google and Microsoft Corporation MSFT.

Advertising continues to boom with unit revenue skyrocketing 22% to $10.7 billion, topping the $10.4 billion that Wall Street expected. For the sake of comparison, Meta Platforms Inc META reported a 11% rise in this business segment, being its second consecutive quarterly increase after a brutal year that came after Apple introduced privacy changes, with Google being far behind the two with only 3.2% revenue growth. Therefore, as the slumping digital ad market shows signs of improvement, Amazon's online advertising business is getting bigger. According to Insider Intelligence, Amazon holds 7.3% of the worldwide digital ad market, while Alphabet owns 28.8% and Meta 20.5%. Apple damaged Meta with its 2021 iOS privacy update by limiting its power to target ads, as some companies and retailers shifted their ad budgets to platforms like Amazon. As a result, Amazon's ad business expanded over the past year while Meta's core digital ad business shrank last year. Although its latest result showed Meta is rebounding, it is just not doing it at the cost of Amazon's share that keeps on growing.

Third Quarter Guidance

Fueled by the success of July's 48-hour Prime Day discount event that Amazon touted as its biggest ever, sales for the undergoing quarter are now expected in the range between $138 billion and $143 billion, which implies a growth rate between 9% and 13%.

Amazon And Apple Wrapped Up The Big Tech's Q2 Reports

While growth that mega tech companies reported remains below historical standards, results show that they are rebounding after a tough year with cost-control initiatives fueling profitability. What these Big Tech reports all have in common is that they are going full speed ahead in the same direction- towards a generative AI-powered future.

DISCLAIMER: This content is for informational purposes only. It is not intended as investing advice.