Amazon pulls in a record $2.9B in quarterly profit, misses expectations

Amazon.com sales climbed nearly 30 percent, to $56.6 billion, in the third quarter, the technology giant announced Thursday, but missed expectations despite its broadly popular discount event, Prime Day.

Still, the company brought in a record $2.9 billion in profit — marking its fourth consecutive quarter in which profits topped $1 billion. The company’s stock price closed up 7 percent on Thursday, at $1,782.17, but plunged in after-hours trading to $1,668.01 a share.

“Amazon Business is adding customers rapidly, including large educational institutions, local governments and more than half of the Fortune 100,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and chief executive, said in a statement. Bezos owns The Washington Post. “These organizations are choosing Amazon Business because it increases transparency into business spending and streamlines purchasing, with increased control.”

In July, Amazon hit a record $2.5 billion in quarterly profit. Much of that growth was driven by Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud-computer business, which reaped $6.1 billion in sales. This quarter, Amazon Web Services hit $6.7 billion.

Prime Day was created in 2014 and quickly boomed to become Amazon’s largest sales day of the year. The bonanza brings in billions in sales for the company but was dogged by website glitches and worker strikes this year. Nearly 1,800 Amazon workers in Spain went on strike that day, joining a chorus of thousands of other workers calling for better conditions, pay and health benefits. The labor protests mounted scrutiny on the company’s hiring and labor practices as Amazon looked to add thousands of warehouse jobs to keep pace with its massive growth.

Amazon’s Prime membership program, for which users pay $119 a year, has more than 100 million members worldwide. Though Amazon has largely kept specific metrics on the program under wraps, some have raised the possibility that the Prime member count may be reaching a saturation point.