Amazon Earnings Demolish Expectations: 6 Metrics You Should See

Amazon.com (AMZN +0.53%) reported powerful first-quarter 2018 results after the market closed on Thursday. As it did last quarter, the e-commerce and cloud-computing giant crushed Wall Street's earnings expectation. 

Shares popped 6.7% in after-hours trading on Thursday, which bodes well for the stock's performance on Friday. The stock has gained 67% for the one-year period through the regular trading session on Thursday, versus the S&P 500's nearly 14% return. 

Here's an overview of Amazon's blowout first quarter in six numbers.

Image source: Amazon.

Revenue jumped 43%

Amazon's net sales surged 43% year over year to $51.04 billion, beating both the $49.9 billion Wall Street was expecting and Amazon's guidance of $47.75 billion to $50.75 billion.

Excluding the $1.6 billion favorable contribution from foreign exchange, revenue increased 39%. And excluding the contribution from foreign exchange and the $4.3 billion generated from physical stores that weren't part of Amazon in the year-ago period, revenue rose 27%. These stores primarily include those of Whole Foods, as Amazon acquired the organic grocer in the third quarter of last year.

All three segments experienced robust revenue growth:

Data source: Amazon.

Breaking down revenue another way:

• Online retail sales rose 18% year over year to $26.9 billion.
• Physical store sales increased 100% to $4.3 billion.
• Third-party seller commission and fulfillment fees grew 44% to $9.3 billion. 
• Subscription (Prime and other) services jumped 60% to $3.1 billion.
• AWS sales soared 49% to $5.4 billion.
• Other sales of $2 billion.

Operating income surged 92%

Operating income rocketed 92% year over year to $1.9 billion, which crushed Amazon's guidance of $300 million to $1 billion. Operating income growing faster than revenue reflects Amazon's expanding operating margin, which is being driven by increased operational efficiencies in North America and AWS, its cloud-computing service business.  

Data source: Amazon.

Investors shouldn't concern themselves with the operating loss in International, as Amazon is plowing money into growing this business, which is not as established as its North American business.

EPS soared 121% 

Net income zoomed up 125% year over year to $1.63 billion. On a per-share basis, results soared 121% to $3.27, which demolished Wall Street's EPS consensus of $1.27.

Image source: Getty Images.

AWS has a head start on competitors of 7 years

Amazon Web Services is Amazon's profit engine. The cloud-computing service accounted for just 11% of total revenue in the quarter, yet a whopping 73% of total operating income. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos commented in the press release about AWS's success: 

AWS had the unusual advantage of a seven-year head start before facing like-minded competition, and the team has never slowed down. As a result, the AWS services are by far the most evolved and most functionality-rich.

A trio of No. 1 ratings

For the third year in a row, consumers voted Amazon No. 1 in corporate reputation in the Harris Poll. Also, U.S. consumers ranked Amazon No. 1 in the American Customer Satisfaction Index for the Internet Retail category for the eighth year in a row. Amazon's third top rating came from LinkedIn, which recognized the company as the "most desirable workplace in the U.S. based on data about where job seekers want to work and how long employees stay with companies across the country."

Operating income growth of 75% to 203% expected in Q2

For the second quarter, Amazon expects net sales of $51.0 billion to $54.0 billion, representing growth of 34% to 42% year over year. It projects operating income of $1.1 billion to $1.9 billion, representing growth of 75% to 203%.

Amazon turned in yet another terrific quarter, and the future continues to look bright.