AMAZON’S PROFIT TOPS $2 BILLION IN QUARTER

Amazon’s quarterly profit soared past $2 billion for the first time as its online shopping, cloud computing and advertising businesses kept growing.

The company, which has expanded far beyond its online bookseller beginnings, also is moving into health care and building up its physical presence as it cements customer loyalty through its smart devices and Prime membership of shipping and streaming perks.

Revenue soared 39 percent in the second quarter but missed analysts’ expectations.

The financial results still pleased investors, who sent its shares up more than 3 percent to $1,866.55 in after-hours trading. Its stock is already up nearly 72 percent in the last year, and Amazon is getting closer to surpassing iPhone maker Apple as the world’s most valuable company.

Amazon did suffer a rare setback last week, when its Prime Day sales event began with technical issues. Some shoppers saw pictures of dogs with an apologetic message instead of the products they wanted to buy, and took to social media to complain.

Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said Thursday the glitch was caused by “larger than expected traffic” to the site. Despite the early issues, Amazon said this year’s Prime Day was its biggest shopping event in its history and more new Prime members signed up on July 16 than on any other day.

Revenue for the quarter came to $52.89 billion, below the $53.37 billion analysts expected. The company’s physical stores brought in $4.3 billion, most of which came from its Whole Foods grocery chain. Amazon, which bought Whole Foods last year, recently rolled out extra discounts for its Prime members at its U.S. stores.