Amazon shares pop as company beats revenue, profit forecasts

Shares of online retailer Amazon.com Inc. shot up in after-hours trading as the company blew past Wall Street expectations for first-quarter revenue and earnings.

Amazon reported Thursday that it made a profit of $1.07 US per share, topped the average analyst forecast of 61 cents, according to Zacks Investment Research.

The company reported revenue of $29.13 billion, ahead of the $27.94 average analyst forecast.

Investors responded by sending Amazon shares up more than 12 per cent to reach $676.80 US. During the regular trading session prior to the release of the earnings report, Amazon was down $4.57 at $602.

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In a statement, CEO Jeff Bezos said sales of Amazon devices such as the Echo smart speaker and the Fire TV stick were strong, although the company does not break out specific sales figures.

Amazon's cloud-based services, called Amazon Web Services, remained another bright spot, with revenue up 64 per cent to $2.57 billion.

The company said it expects its revenue for the third quarter will come in between $28 billion and $30.5 billion. Zacks said analysts had forecast revenue of $28.14 billion.