Mitek Systems (MITK) +20% — Stock Buyback Authorization

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Mitek shares jumped 20% in a single session after the company authorized a new $50 million share repurchase program, equal to roughly 10% of its market capitalization. The move signaled confidence in cash generation and balance-sheet strength, while meaningfully reducing share supply and supporting earnings per share.

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Powell Industries (POWL) +16% — Dividend Increase

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Powell Industries rallied 16% after announcing an increase in its quarterly cash dividend to $0.27 per share, lifting the annualized payout to $1.08. The increase reinforced confidence in cash flow durability and highlighted Powell’s positioning across energy, utility, and industrial electrical infrastructure markets.

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Amazon — Strong cloud demand, but investors panicked because spending is exploding

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Amazon’s quarter had a split personality: parts of the business looked solid, but the overall report didn’t feel “clean.” Earnings came in just under expectations ($1.95 vs. $1.96), and while total sales beat estimates ($213.39B vs. $211.49B), there were enough small misses (like third-party seller services and physical stores) to make investors less forgiving.
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The bright spot was AWS. Cloud revenue was $35.58B (ahead of expectations) and grew 24% year over year, which was described as the fastest pace in three years. AWS profitability also held up, with segment margins rising to about 35%, reinforcing that demand for AI and cloud capacity is still real — and still growing.
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What sank the stock wasn’t just the quarter — it was what Amazon said comes next. First-quarter sales guidance was merely okay ($173.5B–$178.5B, midpoint a bit light vs. expectations), but the real shock was the spending plan: Amazon said it expects to invest about $200B in 2026 capex, a 50% jump and far above what Wall Street was looking for. That tells investors Amazon is going “all in” on building out AI/data-center infrastructure — but it also raises two uncomfortable questions: how long until that spending turns into profits, and is there even enough electricity and grid capacity to power all the new data centers everyone wants to build?
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So even with strong AWS growth, the market focused on the near-term hit to cash and the realism of the broader AI buildout. The result was immediate: Amazon dropped hard after hours, down as much as ~11%, because the message investors heard was simple — “we’re going to spend a lot more money before we make a lot more money.”