Amazon narrows 3Q loss on 24% gain in revenue

Amazon.com’s revenue rose more than Wall Street expected in its fiscal third quarter, but ongoing investments dealt the online retailer another loss.

Steady profits have been elusive for the world’s largest online retailer, as it spends heavily on filling orders, marketing, and technological improvements. But investors cheered its fourth-quarter revenue forecast. Shares rose 8 percent to $359.90 in after-hours trading and are up 32 percent for the year.

Amazon has been busy launching products, expanding the number of fulfillment centers and adding robots to get packages out the door. Operating expenses rose 24 percent in the quarter.

The Seattle-based company posted a loss of $41 million, or 9 cents per share, for the quarter that ended in September, matching expectations. That compared with a loss of $274 million, or 60 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2012. The prior year included a one-time $169 million loss related to its stake in online deals site LivingSocial.

Revenue jumped 24 percent $17.09 billion from $13.81 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Wall Street predicted $16.76 billion, according to FactSet.

Amazon said it expects revenue for its fourth quarter to fall between $23.5 billion and $26.5 billion, bracketing analysts’ prediction of $25.88 billion. That’s also up 10 to 25 percent from its fourth quarter last year.