Amazon up 7% following earnings beat

Amazon reported first-quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday, sending shares up 7 percent in after-hours trading after its significantly better-than-expected report.

The company reported earnings per share of $3.27, well above the $1.26 that analysts had been expecting. This worked out to $1.6 billion in net income, up from $724 million last year.

Revenue was $51.04 billion, above the $49.78 billion that Wall Street forecast and a 43 percent increase from the same time last year; $31.6 billion came from products and $19.4 billion came from services.

The growth was driven by its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing business, which was up 49 percent year-over-year, accounting for $5.4 billion in revenue, or 11 percent of Amazon’s total revenue.

“AWS lets developers do more and be nimbler, and it continues to get even better every day,” said CEO Jeff Bezos, in a statement. “That’s why you’re seeing this remarkable acceleration in AWS growth, now for two quarters in a row.” Microsoft and Google are amongst its competitors.

Amazon also saw strong growth at home, up 46 percent in North America, accounting for 60 percent of Amazon’s overall business. International revenue saw 34 percent growth and makes up 29 percent of Amazon’s business.

Shares closed at $1,517.96 on Thursday. Shares are up 65 percent in the past year. The company has a market cap of $735 billion.