One of your favorite online stores has just announced their Q3 results, and while the numbers fall short of analysts' expectations, they are, nonetheless, healthy. They do, however, put an end to a three-quarter straight of earning records, with the Jeff Bezos' owned company posting $252 million in net income - down from the comparatively astronomical $857 million posted on Q2. Year-over-year, though, Amazon's revenue increased by 29%, hitting $32.7 billion in 3Q 2016, up from the $25.4 billion registered in 3Q 2015.While profits may seem negligible when compared against the company's revenue, one has to take into account the amount of investment the company is currently making in many of its areas of engagement. One also has to consider the company's increasing operating expenses, which grew 28% in the quarter to $32.14 billion - partly leveraged by increased fulfillment and shipping costs, which rose 34% to $4.34 billion, as the company focused on improving shipment conditions for its Prime membership service.

The problem with Amazon's Q3 report lays, simply put, with earnings per share. These were adjusted to 52 cents per share, falling short of the expected 78 cents a share. This 45% decrease in regards to analysts' expectations, however, represents a twofold increase year-over-year, with the company's Q3 2015 earnings being a much meager $0.17 per share. Finicky as investors are, this was enough to drive Amazon's shares down by 6% from its opening value of $830, though they now seem to be recovering from this knee-jerk reaction.

The earnings report also confirms the trend in the cloud computing world - Amazon Web Services continues to achieve strong growth, having generated $3.23 billion in revenue, up 55 percent from same period last year, as well as operating income of $861 million, up from $428 million year-over-year. This, however, marks a deceleration of the division's growth for the seventh consecutive quarter, which may (or may not be) a warning sign.