Amazon's 3rd quarter earnings 2018: LIVE

Amazon's profits in the third quarter erased the intoxicating expectations of analysts, but nevertheless managed to disappoint Wall Street.

Analysts predicted that Amazon's earnings per share would be six times higher during the period than during the same quarter of the previous year. In fact, the company's earnings per share for the third quarter, released on Thursday, was more than 10 days higher than a year earlier. The soaring profits from its North American retail cloud business and Amazon Web Services in North America have improved earnings.

However, the company moderated this exceptional result by recording a shortfall in the third quarter and a slightly lighter earnings outlook for the holiday season than anticipated by analysts.

Investors focused on the negative. After normal business hours, the company's shares had lost $ 1,670.13, or $ 112.04, or 6.3%.

Here is what the company reported:

• Q3 turnover: $ 56.6 billion. Analysts were looking for $ 57.1 billion. In the third quarter of last year, Amazon achieved a turnover of $ 43.7 billion.
• T3 result per share: $ 5.75. Analysts expected USD 3.11 per share. During the same period last year, the company had gained 52 cents per share.
• Earnings per share in the fourth quarter (forecast): Between $ 66.5 and $ 72.5 billion. Wall Street had forecast $ 73.8 billion before the release of the report. During the holiday season last year, Amazon recorded sales of $ 60.5 billion.
• EPS T4 (forecast): The company did not provide any guidance on the results for the vacation period. Analysts had previously estimated that he would earn $ 5.79 the stock during the quarter. In the fourth quarter of last year, the company had earned $ 3.75 per share.

Amazon received a boost from AWS, Prime and advertising

Once again, Amazon's cloud trade has given it a boost. The AWS business figure jumped 46% over the same period last year to reach $ 6.7 billion. The division's operating profit rose 77% over the same period to $ 2.1 billion, more than one-third of Amazon's total net profit for the period.

But the company has also seen a windfall in its retail business, particularly in North America. Sales in this division jumped 35% to $ 34.3 billion. Profits in this sector climbed to $ 2 billion from $ 112 million in the third quarter of last year.

These results were inflated by the company's acquisition of Whole Foods. This purchase took place in the middle of the third quarter of last year, which means that Amazon included in its third-quarter earnings last year only Whole Foods revenues, compared to a full quarter for the moment.

Amazon has also benefited from strong sales of its premium subscription program. The total business turnover of its subscriptions, which comes not only from Prime, but also from Audible.com, Amazon Music and other services, grew by 52% over in the third quarter of last year, reaching $ 3.7 billion.

And the company continued to be successful in advertising. Its "other" revenues, which largely include advertising sales, jumped 122% to $ 2.5 billion.

Amazon shares closed their regular trading up $ 117.97 per share, or 7.1%, to $ 1,782.17.

We will update this story when Amazon releases its numbers. Refresh this page for the last one.