There's no reason to bury the lede. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) just had its best quarter ever, posting record revenue and profits on blowout growth as the company became essential during the pandemic. Coming into the second-quarter report, there were a number of signs pointing to a blockbuster quarter from the tech giant, and Amazon delivered -- and then some.
Revenue jumped 40% in the quarter to $88.9 billion, driven by strong e-commerce demand around the world. That result easily beat the company's own guidance for 18%-28% top-line growth and analyst estimates of a 28.6% increase to $81.5 billion. Amazon's bottom-line result was even more eye-popping: After forecasting operating income ranging around break-even for the second quarter, operating profit nearly doubled to $5.8 billion, and earnings per share jumped from $5.22 a year ago to $10.30, dwarfing the analyst consensus at $1.46.
On the earnings call, management explained that the second quarter is historically the slowest period for retail sales, so the company was able to ramp up its excess fulfillment capacity, which exists to support demand during the holiday season; that pushed operating leverage higher.