Amazon’s sales jump 37% in the fiscal third quarter.

Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) said on Thursday that its revenue in the fiscal third quarter came in 37% higher on an annualised basis. Profit in the recent quarter, the company added, was also better than expected.  

Amazon was reported close to 2% down in after-hours trading on Thursday. On a year to date basis, shares of the company are now more than 65% up after a nearly 100% growth since its year to date low in March.

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Amazon’s Q3 financial results versus analysts’ estimates

According to Refinitiv, experts had forecast the company to print £71.83 billion of revenue in the third quarter. For earnings per share, they had estimated £5.74. In its report on Thursday, Amazon topped both estimates posting a higher £74.51 billion of revenue in Q3 and £9.59 of earnings per share.

The retail giant said it now employs 1.12 million full-time workers worldwide that represents a 50% increase on a year over year basis. Revenue from Amazon Web Services (AWS) was 29% higher in the recent quarter at £8.99 billion – in line with the FactSet Consensus. The Seattle-based company said in September that it will hire 100 thousand new workers in the United States and Canada.

At £2.74 billion, operating income from AWS in Q3 was higher than £2.67 billion expected. Amazon generated £4.18 billion of revenue from its “other” category that includes its advertising business. Other revenue represented a 51% annualised growth. Revenue from subscriptions printed at £5.10 billion in the third quarter or 33% higher than last year.

Amazon’s guidance for the fiscal fourth quarter

For the fiscal fourth quarter, Amazon now expects its sales to fall in the range of £86.79 billion to £93.76 billion. Analysts, on the other hand, are calling for £87.02 billion of revenue for Amazon in Q4.

The American multinational forecasts £770 million to £3.49 billion of operating income in the fourth quarter, as costs worth £3.10 billion attributed to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. Amazon also said on Thursday that third-party sales saw a broader 55% growth in Q3 versus a 38% growth in first-party sales.

At Amazon’s physical store unit, sales were 10% down in the recent quarter. In separate news from the U.S., Spotify also published its quarterly earnings report on Thursday.

At the time of writing, Amazon is valued at £1.25 trillion and has a price to earnings ratio of 123.42.