SEATTLE — Investors gave Amazon’s stock a bump early Thursday in anticipation of a strong earnings report later in the day, briefly making Jeff Bezos, the company’s chief executive, the world’s wealthiest person.
By day’s end, Mr. Bezos had not returned the favor, with Amazon reporting profits that were less than a third of what Wall Street had expected.
No matter. It was still the kind of performance that investors have come to expect from Mr. Bezos and Amazon: a 25 percent increase in sales and example after example of how the company is pouring money into original video programming, warehouses and shaping the future with new technology and products like its Echo family of gadgets.
The company’s stock fell only about 3 percent in after-hours trading.
The relative indifference to Amazon’s bottom line was another sign of why the company is so frightening to competitors and critics. Investors would almost certainly have pummeled any other retailer that turned in the kind of performance that Amazon reported Thursday. Instead, they give Amazon several miles of leash because of its history of turning investments into sales growth and technology leadership.
“Yes, we are continuing to invest and stepping up investments,” Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s chief financial officer, said in a conference call with reporters, repeating a variation on a theme that company executives have expressed many times before.
Concerns about Amazon’s mighty ambitions are on the rise at the moment, in part because of its pending plan to acquire Whole Foods for $13.4 billion, a deal that could put Amazon on a path to becoming a significant player in the vast grocery market. Although the deal has faced criticism from Democratic lawmakers, labor unions and consumer groups, there is no sign that it is in real jeopardy.
Amazon’s shares have risen more than 8 percent since the deal was announced in June,…
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