Amazon shares dip on cautious third-quarter forecast

Amazon.com Inc reported a second-quarter net loss and issued cautious third-quarter forecasts on Thursday, pressuring shares of the world's largest Internet retailer.

Amazon shares declined 2.1 percent to $297 in after-hours trading following the results.

Amazon reported a second-quarter net loss of $7 million, or 2 cents a share, compared to a profit of $7 million, or a penny a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $15.70 billion from $12.83 billion in the same period last year.

Amazon was expected earn 5 cents a share on $15.73 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Amazon is trying to turn itself from an online retailer into a broader technology company offering consumer gadgets like tablets and cloud computing services to corporations and governments. It is doing this while expanding in competitive overseas markets such as China.

Amazon is spending billions of dollars on this expansion, which has taken a toll on its earnings. However, investors have so far trusted that Chief Executive and Founder Jeff Bezos can pull it off and produce big profits in the future. That's pushed Amazon shares to new records in recent weeks.

For the third quarter, Amazon forecast revenue of $15.45 billion to $17.15 billion and operating results ranging from a loss of $100 million to a profit of $275 million.

Wall Street was looking for third quarter revenue of $17 billion and operating profit of $390 million.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Bernard Orr)