Amazon stock climbs as profit hits new high in Q2

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) posted second-quarter earnings on Thursday, riding way past analyst expectations. Sales numbers, however, slightly missed the mark. The stock climbed around 4% following the earnings release.

The e-commerce giant reported net sales of $52.9 billion for the second quarter of 2018, up 39% from the same period last year. Excluding favorable impacts from FX rates, net sales increased 37%.

LIVE BLOG: Amazon Q2 2018 earnings call

Net income increased to $2.5 billion or $5.07 per diluted share compared to $197 million or $0.40 per diluted share in the prior-year period.

Net sales for the North America segment rose 44% while sales in the International segment increased 27%. Sales for Amazon Web Services (AWS) saw a 49% growth to $6.1 billion for the quarter.

For the third quarter of 2018, Amazon expects net sales to grow 23-31% to $54-$57.5 billion. Operating income is expected to be between $1.4 billion and $2.4 billion.

Amazon’s results demonstrate strength in its cloud and advertising businesses which are more profitable than its retail business. The strong earnings and rise in stock could take Amazon closer to the $1 trillion mark.

Related: Amazon earnings preview: The best is yet to come

Amazon is expanding its grocery delivery service from Whole Foods Market to more than 20 cities in the US, while also offering Prime member savings at Whole Foods stores across the nation.

Last month, Amazon agreed to acquire PillPack, marking its entry into the pharmacy business. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2018.

Prime Day on July 16th was massive with customers purchasing more than 100 million products, and small and medium-sized businesses exceeding $1.5 billion in sales during the event.

Amazon’s new facial recognition tool might be racist

Amazon’s Rekognition matched 28 Congress members with illegal suspects at 80% accuracy in a recent test by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Many civil rights advocates have been rallying against the giant asking it to refrain from selling the application to law enforcement agencies. The matches also highlighted people of color more than others, which hinted at an even more troubling problem of face-surveillance methods possibly targeting minorities and immigrants unfairly.

Related: Amazon’s facial recognition tool really messed up this time

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