Amazon Stock Hits 12-Month High On Impressive Sales Boost

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Shares of Amazon climbed nearly 10% Friday morning following a strong earnings report showing the tech giant’s second-quarter sales grew well over analysts’ expectations, capping off a major rise in shares on the year despite a dip on Wall Street earlier this week.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos added $200 million per minute to his net worth in the first hour of … [+] trading on Friday.

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Key Facts

Amazon’s shares shot up by nearly $13 to just over $141 Friday morning, the company’s highest point since August 18 of last year.

The drastic rise, Amazon’s biggest single-day increase by percentage so far this year, comes on the heels of an impressive second-quarter earnings report released Thursday, which found the country’s second-largest company’s sales jumped by roughly 11% over the quarter to $134.4 billion, up from $121.2 billion at the same time last year.

Amazon’s quarterly sales came in well ahead of analysts’ estimates of $134.4 billion, helping to continue the company’s boost on Wall Street so far this year, climbing nearly 65% since January 1.

The company also reported net income of $6.7 billion, compared to a net loss of $2 billion a year ago.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy attributed the performance, in part, to its Amazon Web Services’ embrace of a “slew of generative AI releases” allowing it to “add to its meaningful leadership position” in its cloud-based business, as well as “strong demand” for advertising services including the ramp up for its broadcast of the NFL’s Thursday Night Football—despite those broadcasts faring worse in viewership than NBC, CBS and Fox coverage of Sunday games.

Surprising Fact

Amazon’s impressive day on Wall Street caps off a turbulent week in the tech industry, which saw the world’s 10 richest people lose a combined $27 billion on Wednesday in the wake of a debt downgrade from AAA to AA+ that left investors on edge. Amazon’s stock was one of seven major tech stocks leading the blockbuster losses on Wednesday, falling 2.7% on the day, amid sliding shares of Nvidia, which fell 4.9% on Wednesday, Tesla (down 2.8%) and Meta (down 2.9%).

Forbes Valuation

We estimate Amazon’s billionaire founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos’ net worth has skyrocketed $12 billion so far Wednesday morning, to $163.5 billion, putting him just over $74 billion behind Twitter, SpaceX and Tesla owner Elon Musk ($236.9 billion). In the first hour of trading Friday, Bezos added $200 million per minute to his fortune, which is the world’s third largest.

What To Watch For

Continued sales growth. Amazon reported on Thursday that it expects net sales to continue climbing in the third quarter to between $138 billion and $143 billion, representing an increase of between 9% and 13% from the same quarter last year.