AWS Reports $25B In Sales In 2018 With No Signs Of Slowdown In Sight

AWS ended 2018 with more than $25 billion in sales and showing no signs that its market-leading cloud business was slowing down.

"AWS maintained a very strong growth rate and continued to deliver for customers," Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky told investors Thursday in Amazon's fourth-quarter earnings call.

The $7.4 billion in cloud revenue for the quarter ending Dec. 31 marked year-over-year growth of 45 percent at AWS—$130 million more than analysts had predicted.

[Related: AWS Growth Slows Slightly, But Profits Ramp With Data Center Efficiencies]

If there was any qualm about the health of Amazon's cloud business, it was a slight decline in the whopping 32 percent margins posted in the previous quarter.

"That number will move around," Olsavsky said on the earnings call.

Amazon is pleased with the Q4 margins of 29.3 percent, he said, and the cloud division's net earnings will always be affected by a combination of price decreases, geographic expansion, added headcount, "and staying very relevant in our customers’ minds."

Amazon also heightened its spend on marketing going through AWS over the last few months, said Dave Fildes, Amazon's director of investor relations.

Ultimately, AWS income of $2.177 billion delivered more than two-thirds of the e-commerce giant's total profits.

Amazon's earnings-per-share came in at $6.04 in Q4, beating average estimates of $5.68. And total revenue of $72.4 billion also beat the $71.9 billion investors expected.

After an initial spike, Amazon stock fell after-hours from a close of $1,718.73 to $1,625 at publication time on weaker guidance for the next quarter than investors had hoped for.