Amazon sales hit $134.4 billion, up 11%, for the second quarter of 2023, as the ecommerce giant topped Wall Street estimates in a big earnings beat.
The company reported income of $6.7 billion for Q2, or 65 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $2.0 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts on average had projected revenue of $131.54 billion and earnings per share of 34 cents, according to Zacks Investment Research.
Sales in Amazon’s AWS cloud-computing business grew 12% year-over-year to $22.1 billion — while advertising revenue in Q2 jumped 22% to $10.68 billion (over analyst expectations of $10.4 billion, per StreetAccount).
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, in announcing the results, said the company is “continuing to see strong demand for our advertising services as the team keeps innovating for brands, including the ramp up for ‘Thursday Night Football’ [on Prime Video] with the ability for advertisers to tailor their spots by audience and create interactive experiences for consumers.”
Under its 11-year pact with the NFL, Amazon is reportedly paying about $1 billion annually for exclusive rights to 15 regular-season games and one preseason game per year.
In Q2, Amazon introduced what it claims are more advanced machine-learning models to help advertisers “reach previously unaddressable audiences with Amazon Ads” as the digital ad business moves away from third-party browser cookies.
For the third quarter, Amazon expects revenue to be $138 billion-$143 billion, or to grow between 9% and 13% compared with Q3 2022. Operating income is expected to be between $5.5 billion and $8.5 billion, compared with $2.5 billion in the year-earlier period.
Amazon also called out a total of 68 nominations for the 2023 Emmy Awards, including nominations in the best comedy series category for Prime Video’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” Freevee’s “Jury Duty” (the first ad-supported VOD series to get a nod in a major category) and MGM’s “Wednesday” (which streams on Netflix). In addition, “Daisy Jones & the Six” earned nine nominations and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” picked up six.
In addition, during the second quarter, Amazon announced Fire TV Channels, a free, ad-supported streaming service that offers users of its Fire TV devices access to content from more than 400 partners including the ABC News, CBS Sports HQ, Fox Sports, Major League baseball, NBC News Now, the NHL, America’s Test Kitchen and Microsoft Xbox.
