Amazon Shares Jump 5% Following Strong Earnings Report

Shares of Amazon.com Inc. rallied in after-hours trade Thursday following the company's stronger-than-expected earnings report. The e-commerce and cloud-services giant reported first-quarter net income of $724 million, or $1.48 a share, compared with $513 million, or $1.07 a share, in the year-earlier period. Analysts had forecast earnings of $1.08 a share. Revenue for the period climbed to $35.7 billion from $29.1 billion a year earlier, topping the consensus view of $35.3 billion. Amazon Web Services revenue increased to $3.66 billion from $2.57 billion in the year-earlier period. The company forecast second-quarter earnings of between $35.25 billion and $37.75 billion, bracketing - but mostly below - the $37 billion FactSet forecast. Shares of Amazon jumped nearly 5% to $963 in after-hours trade. The stock had gained 10% in the past three months and 51.5% in the past 12 months, as of Thursday's close. It has outperformed the S&P 500 , which is up 4% in the past three months and 14% in the past year. Follow MarketWatch live blog for coverage of Amazon's conference call and further earnings reaction.