Amazon's profit more than doubles on cloud computing growth

NEW YORK — Amazon's push into advertising and cloud computing is paying off, helping the online shopping giant's first quarter profit more than double from a year ago.

The Seattle-based company on Thursday reported net income of $3.56 billion, or $7.09 per share, for the first three months of the year.

That beat expectations of $4.61 per share, according to Zacks Investment Research. In the same time a year ago, it reported net income of $1.63 billion, or $3.27 per share.

Revenue rose 17% to $59.7 billion, which also beat Wall Street expectations.

At its cloud computing business, called Amazon Web Services, revenue soared 41%.

The company doesn't say exactly how much its advertising business makes. Instead it lists it as part of its "other" revenue, which jumped 34% from a year ago.

For the current quarter ending in July, Amazon said it expects revenue in the range of $59.5 billion to $63.5 billion. Analysts expected revenue of $62.53 billion.

Shares of Amazon.com Inc., which are up 27% so far this year, rose 1.6% to $1,933 in after-hours trading Thursday.