Through worldwide Corona-Lockdowns people are more at home – and order more goods online. The world’s largest online retailer Amazon in particular benefited from this. In the second quarter, sales skyrocketed 40 percent year-over-year to $ 88.9 billion, Amazon said after the US closing in Seattle. The profit was $ 5.2 billion, roughly doubling year-on-year.
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The results were significantly higher than the analysts’ forecasts, and the stock reacted afterwards with strong price increases. That Amazon was one of the major beneficiaries of the corona crisis with its delivery services, which had already been shown in the previous quarter. In addition, the cloud business with IT services and storage space on the net continues to flourish, even though Amazon’s flagship AWS has recently not been able to fully meet the high expectations.
175,000 additional employees hired
The web platform used by many companies increased sales in the past quarter by 29 percent to $ 10.8 billion. This markedly slowed growth compared to the previous quarter. However, this also corresponds to the longer-term trend. In general, the cloud business also benefits in the pandemic, as increased homework, for example, increases demand. For Amazon, the division is very lucrative because of its high profit margins. In the most recent quarter, operating income was $ 3.4 billion. Read a detailed analysis here: The Amazon file.
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In view of the numerous new hires and high investments to cope with the rush of customers in the Corona crisis, Amazon’s costs also rose sharply. That was the head of the group Jeff Bezos already announced. Three months ago, he warned investors: “If you own Amazon shares, you should sit down now, because we don’t think small”. The group was initially somewhat overwhelmed with the high level of activity in the pandemic, so 175,000 additional employees were hired. Amazon is now one of the largest employers in the United States.
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For the current third quarter, the company forecast sales of between $ 87 billion and $ 93 billion, which would result in a strong increase of 24 to 33 percent year-on-year. Amazon expects operating profit to be between two and five billion dollars. The company had earned $ 3.2 billion in the prior year period.
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This was also well received on the market: Investors let the share go up by over five percent. With a share price increase of around 65 percent since the beginning of the year, the group is one of the biggest winners on the financial market anyway.
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