Photo via Shutterstock.
Photo via Shutterstock.

Microsoft, Amazon, and Starbucks all reported quarterly earnings Thursday afternoon, and investors are clearly happy with the financial performance of the Seattle-based corporations.

Shares of all three companies were up on Friday. As of 9:45 a.m. PT, MSFT was up more than 9 percent; AMZN was up a whopping 15 percent; and SBUX was up nearly 5 percent.

The companies saw their market capitalization increase by a combined $70 billion. Microsoft is now worth $388 billion; Amazon at $209 billion; Starbucks at $78 billion.

The soaring stock prices aren’t too surprising. Microsoft beat Wall Street estimates with $21.7 billion in quarterly revenue and earnings of 61 cents per share. Starbucks, meanwhile, crushed expectations with net revenues of $4.6 billion and earnings per share of 33 cents, both Q2 records for the coffee giant.

Yet while Amazon also beat estimates, the company again did not post a profit, reporting a quarterly loss of 12 cents a share on revenues of $22.72 billion. This isn’t a new trend, as Amazon has consistently posted a net loss as it re-invests revenue back into the company.

bezos2Investors seem to be content with the long-term strategy, as Amazon’s stock price is now at $449, up more than 200 percent over the past five years.

However, many have grown wary of the pattern, wondering if and when Amazon will ever post a profit.

So why the huge AMZN spike on Friday? That could be credited to the performance of the company’s cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services. For the first time, Amazon broke out financials for AWS on Thursday, noting that the segment generated $1.57 billion in net sales during the last fiscal quarter, up 49 percent from one year ago.

Perhaps more importantly, Amazon also posted $265 million in Q1 profit from Amazon Web Services, up from $245 million last year.

“Amazon Web Services is a $5 billion business and still growing fast — in fact it’s accelerating,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement.

The impressive growth with AWS and steady net income are likely providing some comfort for investors worried about Amazon’s lack of profits over the past two decades.

One other fun note: With the stock surge, Bezos’ saw his net worth grow by nearly $5 billion on Friday, moving him into the world’s top 10 richest people list.

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