Amazon Shares Fall 7% After Q3 Miss as Trailing 12-Month Free Cash Flow Turns Negative

Amazon shares fell 7.27% to $226.07 in premarket trading at 9:01 a.m. ET Friday after quarterly sales and earnings missed analyst estimates, while its trailing 12-month free cash flow swung to a $42.4 billion outflow.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Amazon recorded $201.944 billion in sales, net income of $20.685 billion and diluted earnings of $1.89 per share. Available estimates put revenue at $202.2 billion and earnings at $1.96 to $1.97 per share.

Free cash flow over the 12 months through Sept. 30 was negative $42.357 billion, compared with positive $14.788 billion in the year-earlier period. Amazon attributed most of the change to a $94.8 billion year-over-year increase in net purchases of property and equipment, primarily reflecting AI investment. The company kept its forecast for about $220 billion in 2026 cash capital expenditures.

Amazon Web Services sales advanced 39.3% to $45.984 billion, while operating income rose to $17.773 billion from $11.434 billion a year earlier. Amazon said third-quarter sales growth would have been about four percentage points higher without a shift in Prime Day timing. Most large countries held the event in the second quarter this year, compared with the third quarter in 2025.