Why Amazon Stock Jumped 13.2% in August

What happened

Shares of Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) increased 13.2% in August, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. This brings the e-commerce and cloud-computing behemoth stock's year-to-date 2018 rise to 72.1% through Friday, Aug. 31.

For some context, the S&P 500 returned 3.3% last month and has returned 9.9% so far this year.

So what

We can attribute Amazon's robust August performance to a continuation of the strong momentum the stock has had all year and the company's release of powerful second-quarter earnings on July 26.

For the quarter, Amazon's revenue jumped 39% year over year to $52.9 billion. Net income increased more than 12 times to $2.5 billion; on a per-share basis, results soared 1,168% to $5.07. The bottom-line demolished Wall Street's consensus of $2.50 per share.

Revenue growth was strong across all three segments, rising 44% in North America, 27% in international, and 49% in Amazon Web Services (AWS). The North America business got a boost from the company's acquisition of Whole Foods in the third quarter of last year. North America and AWS posted robust profit growth, with North America's operating income soaring 321% to $1.8 billion and AWS's climbing 79% to $1.6 billion. International's operating loss narrowed 32% to $494 million. Overall operating income went up 378% to $3.0 billion.

Now what

More fantastic growth appears to be on the horizon. For Q3, Amazon guided for revenue of $54.0 billion to $57.5 billion, representing growth of 23% to 31% year over year. It expects operating income of $1.4 billion to $2.4 billion, representing growth of 303% to 592%.

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John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Beth McKenna has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.