Amazon posts 13% jump in sales, sending shares higher — but fails to deliver dividend

Amazon forecast second-quarter revenue below Wall Street expectations on Tuesday, as it expects tepid spending from cost-conscious businesses on its cloud-computing services.

Amazon’s first-quarter sales of $143.3 billion, a 13% gain, were higher than the $142.5 billion average according to LSEG data.

Amazon shares rose as much as 6% in after-hours trading, after closing down 3.3% in the regular session.

The company expects revenue of $144 billion to $149 billion for the current quarter ending June, compared with analyst consensus expectations of $150.07 billion, according to LSEG data.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the largest provider of cloud-computing services, posted a 17% rise in revenue to $25 billion in the first quarter, compared with expectations of $24.53 billion.

That compares with a rise in cloud-computing revenue of 31% for Microsoft and 28% for Alphabet  for the January-to-March period.

Amazon bucked a Big Tech trend of announcing a dividend, after rivals Alphabet and Meta Platforms rolled out the investor goodie.

The latter two announcements were cheered by investors who pushed the stock prices higher.

Amazon and Tesla remain the only members of the so-called Magnificent Seven tech stocks that do not offer dividends.