{"id":77516,"date":"2023-10-27T12:48:05","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T16:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/markets\/best-quarter-since-2021-but-cloud-division-underwhelms\/"},"modified":"2023-10-27T12:48:08","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T16:48:08","slug":"best-quarter-since-2021-but-cloud-division-underwhelms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516","title":{"rendered":"Best Quarter Since 2021, But Cloud Division Underwhelms"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<h2 class=\"subhead-embed color-accent bg-base font-accent font-size text-align\">Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Amazon tripled its profit and surpassed revenue expectations for the third quarter<\/li>\n<li>But AWS came in a hair short of investor expectations<\/li>\n<li>Amazon\u2019s stock price closed 0.6% down but gained 5% in after-hours trading with CEO Andy Jassy\u2019s reassurance on the investors\u2019 call<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Earnings season is in full swing, and this week, the focus has been on Big Tech, with Amazon out the doors early on Thursday. The shopping titan\u2019s third quarter was very strong, blowing revenue and earnings expectations out of the water, but the stock price reaction was flat at best.<\/p>\n<p>Why? Cloud computing has captured Wall Street\u2019s attention this quarter after watching Big Tech invest billions into what tech companies promised would be an AI-fueled boom. Market leader AWS was in line with estimates, which has left investors wanting more from the growth area.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the full analysis of Amazon\u2019s earnings for the third quarter, what\u2019s been going on with the cloud computing sector and how Amazon\u2019s stock price fared on the markets.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"subhead-embed color-accent bg-base font-accent font-size text-align\">What did Amazon\u2019s earnings report look like?<\/h2>\n<p><fbs-ad position=\"inread\" progressive=\"\" ad-id=\"article-0-inread\" aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\"><\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n<p>E-commerce giant Amazon\u2019s third-quarter sales were pretty impressive. Sales arrived at $143.1 billion, up 13% from the same period last year and accelerating from the 11% growth seen in the second quarter. Consensus estimates had predicted Amazon to hit $141.5 billion in sales.<\/p>\n<p>Earnings were reported as 94 cents a share, sharply above the 58 cents anticipated by analysts, while net income tripled to $9.9 billion from $2.9 billion a year earlier. It\u2019s a sign that cost-cutting exercises like laying off 27,000 workers and divesting unprofitable businesses have worked.<\/p>\n<p>Advertising revenue was also above expectations, arriving at $12.1 billion instead of the $11.6 billion in revenue analysts had forecast. Amazon\u2019s core e-commerce division also recovered after a difficult 2022, growing by 7% compared to the same time last year. Digital ads were another bright spot: ad revenue climbed 26% from a year earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, with Black Friday and Christmas coming up, Amazon\u2019s fourth quarter is usually its busiest one. So what has the company predicted? Amazon expects to make between $160 billion and $167 billion in sales for the fourth quarter, which was quite a bit less than the $166.6 billion Wall Street predicted.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"subhead-embed color-accent bg-base font-accent font-size text-align\">How did AWS perform?<\/h2>\n<p>Wall Street has been unusually focused on cloud computing revenue this week, with Amazon no exception. AWS performed just fine in the third quarter: the division brought in $23.1 billion in revenue, up from 12.3% the same time last year. Wall Street estimates had come in at $23.2 billion.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s because they just did \u2018fine\u2019 that Wall Street was unimpressed. Amazon CFO Brian Olavsky was quick to reassure in a press conference, saying the Big Tech giant had increased AWS revenue by $900 million from the last quarter.<\/p>\n<p>But it was the mention of that sneaky sentence again &#8211; customers focusing on \u201cspending optimization\u201d &#8211; that investors latched onto. The fact that Amazon\u2019s Q2 also saw a very similar result of $22.1 billion of sales has Wall Street wondering whether AWS\u2019 growth has now bottomed.<\/p>\n<p>Amazon enjoys the biggest market share in the cloud computing sector, with 32% compared to Microsoft Azure\u2019s 22% and Google Cloud\u2019s 11%. But warnings bells should be ringing at Amazon after Microsoft said its Azure cloud division had grown by 28% for the third quarter compared to last year, with three percentage points directly attributable to its artificial intelligence investment.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"subhead-embed color-accent bg-base font-accent font-size text-align\">The stock market reaction<\/h2>\n<p>Amazon\u2019s share price was volatile throughout the day, closing 0.6% down on Thursday but benefiting from a rally in after-trading hours, where it gained over 5%. You can thank CEO Andy Jassy\u2019s reassurances on the investors&#8217; conference call that AWS had landed some chunky contracts that would show up in the fourth-quarter results. Amazon has seen a 39% boost to its share price in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Google and Meta also suffered share price falls this week after their earnings. The former suffered its worst stock drop since March 2020 after Google shares fell 9.5% over concerns Microsoft was eating into its cloud computing market share. Meta warned of ad revenue softening thanks to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza, suffering a 5.5% decline this week.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft is the only one so far to have seen a stock price gain during regular trading hours, climbing 3% after its earnings beat. The stock has seen a 39% gain since the start of the year, boosted by its early investment into AI behemoth OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"subhead-embed color-accent bg-base font-accent font-size text-align\">The bottom line<\/h2>\n<p>Amazon\u2019s tripled profits, successful cost-saving measures and better-than-expected revenue didn\u2019t matter to Wall Street: all of the focus was on cloud performance. $23.1 billion in revenue isn\u2019t to be sniffed at, but investors clearly expected more from the market leader &#8211; and with Microsoft pulling ahead with AI, the concern is real.<\/p>\n<p>With worries over interest rates, geopolitical uncertainty, and inflation still looming, it\u2019s no wonder Big Tech has a high bar to vault over. But this week\u2019s results have been clear: step up on cloud computing, or risk Wall Street\u2019s wrath.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/qai\/2023\/10\/27\/amazon-earnings-call-best-quarter-since-2021-but-cloud-division-underwhelms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key takeaways Amazon tripled its profit and surpassed revenue expectations for the third quarter But AWS came in a hair short of investor expectations Amazon\u2019s stock price closed 0.6% down but gained 5% in after-hours trading with CEO Andy Jassy\u2019s reassurance on the investors\u2019 call Earnings season is in full swing, and this week, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[241],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-77516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-markets","tag-featured"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Best Quarter Since 2021, But Cloud Division Underwhelms | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Key takeaways Amazon tripled its profit and surpassed revenue expectations for the third quarter But AWS came in a hair short of investor expectations\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Best Quarter Since 2021, But Cloud Division Underwhelms | iFintechWorld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Key takeaways Amazon tripled its profit and surpassed revenue expectations for the third quarter But AWS came in a hair short of investor expectations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"iFintechWorld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-27T16:48:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-27T16:48:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/1698425286_0x0.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1343\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61\"},\"headline\":\"Best Quarter Since 2021, But Cloud Division Underwhelms\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-27T16:48:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-27T16:48:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516\"},\"wordCount\":842,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Featured\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Markets\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516\",\"name\":\"Best Quarter Since 2021, But Cloud Division Underwhelms | iFintechWorld\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-27T16:48:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-27T16:48:08+00:00\",\"description\":\"Key takeaways Amazon tripled its profit and surpassed revenue expectations for the third quarter But AWS came in a hair short of investor expectations\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Best Quarter Since 2021, But Cloud Division Underwhelms\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\",\"name\":\"Repay Down\",\"description\":\"Latest Personal Finance News, Tips and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Repay Down\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png\",\"width\":558,\"height\":90,\"caption\":\"Repay Down\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Best Quarter Since 2021, But Cloud Division Underwhelms | iFintechWorld","description":"Key takeaways Amazon tripled its profit and surpassed revenue expectations for the third quarter But AWS came in a hair short of investor expectations","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Best Quarter Since 2021, But Cloud Division Underwhelms | iFintechWorld","og_description":"Key takeaways Amazon tripled its profit and surpassed revenue expectations for the third quarter But AWS came in a hair short of investor expectations","og_url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516","og_site_name":"iFintechWorld","article_published_time":"2023-10-27T16:48:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-10-27T16:48:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1343,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/1698425286_0x0.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61"},"headline":"Best Quarter Since 2021, But Cloud Division Underwhelms","datePublished":"2023-10-27T16:48:05+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-27T16:48:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516"},"wordCount":842,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["Featured"],"articleSection":["Markets"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516","name":"Best Quarter Since 2021, But Cloud Division Underwhelms | iFintechWorld","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-10-27T16:48:05+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-27T16:48:08+00:00","description":"Key takeaways Amazon tripled its profit and surpassed revenue expectations for the third quarter But AWS came in a hair short of investor expectations","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=77516#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Best Quarter Since 2021, But Cloud Division Underwhelms"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/","name":"Repay Down","description":"Latest Personal Finance News, Tips and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization","name":"Repay Down","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png","width":558,"height":90,"caption":"Repay Down"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com"],"url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?author=1"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77518,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77516\/revisions\/77518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}