Amazon profit more than triples

Amazon.com Inc.’s second-quarter profit more than tripled, boosted by strong sales of books, music and electronics worldwide. The Web retailer’s stock soared 21% in after-hours trading.

Earnings for the three months that ended June 30 climbed to $78 million, or 19 cents a share, from $22 million, or 5 cents, a year earlier, the company said Tuesday.

Results topped Wall Street’s expectations. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial forecast a profit of 16 cents a share.

Revenue rose 35% to $2.88 billion, beating analysts’ expectations for $2.81 billion in sales.

Before the announcement, shares of Amazon sank $2.49, or 3.5%, to $69.25. They gained $14.84 to $84.09 in after-hours electronic trading.

For the current third quarter, Seattle-based Amazon said it expected revenue of $3 billion to $3.18 billion. For the full fiscal year, Amazon raised its forecast to a range of $13.8 billion to $14.3 billion, up from its earlier outlook of $13.4 billion to $14 billion.