Amazon.com Inc. on Thursday delivered a double punch, reporting its best revenue growth in more than six years while topping $1 billion in profit for the second straight quarter.

The results surprised investors who were already expecting Amazon to post strong numbers as it extends its dominance in online retailing and builds on gains in cloud-computing services. But this quarter, Amazon was expected to post a more modest profit as it refocused on longer-term investments after a blowout holiday period.

Instead, Amazon more than doubled its quarterly net profit to $1.6 billion—just under its record of $1.9 billion from the holiday quarter—as revenue surged about 43%. The profit feat is an achievement for a company with a reputation for plowing nearly every dollar it earns into investments.

The revenue growth was Amazon’s best mark since the third quarter of 2011, pushing the total to about $51 billion. The company credited the better-than-expected results to its cloud-services division and strong growth in the company’s advertising business.

Amazon’s swelling profitability doesn’t appear to be an anomaly—it expects operating income to potentially more than double to as high as $1.9 billion in the second quarter—though Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky cautioned he might not always have such good news.

“We certainly will always have periods of higher investment, and through the year we expect investments to increase,” particularly for video content, Mr. Olsavsky said. He added that the company will continue to hire.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.wsj.com