Up by a whopping 55% year to date, Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) stock is finally beginning to shake off the post-pandemic slump it endured for most of last year. While the company still faces some challenges in its e-commerce and cloud computing divisions, rebounding profitability and a pivot to artificial intelligence (AI) could help power continued success. 

Amazon has always excelled at generating tons of revenue because its core third-party e-commerce marketplace relies on moving large volumes of goods. But these sales don't always translate to profits. And this challenge mounted as post-pandemic inflation ate into Amazon's margins for much of 2022 and 2023. But the company's most recent earnings show that there is light at the end of the tunnel. 

Second-quarter net sales grew by a modest 11% year over year to $134.4 billion. But the real story was operating income, which surged by a whopping 132% to $7.68 billion. The blowout was driven by Amazon's North American e-commerce division and suggests management's aggressive cost-cutting efforts are bearing fruit. 

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Source Fool.com