Wednesday's Early Winners & Losers

Amazon.com(AMZN) surged 11% in after-hours trading Tuesday after the online retail giant posted third-quarter profit and sales that beat analysts' expectations and guided the Street higher on fourth-quarter sales projections.

The online retailer said it earned $19 million in the third quarter, or 5 cents a share, down from $30 million, or 7 cents a share, a year earlier. Net sales increased 24% to $2.31 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call had been looking for a 3-cent EPS profit on sales of $2.25 billion. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Amazon said it expects sales between $3.63 billion and $3.95 billion, or growth of 22% to 33%. First Call was expecting fourth-quarter revenue of $3.68 billion. Shares were trading up $3.77, to $37.40.

CheckFree(CKFR) tumbled nearly 16% after the Atlanta-based company beat Wall Street estimates for its first-quarter earnings but posted sales that were shy of expectations and offered light guidance that scared off investors. The company said it earned $31.4 million, or 34 cents a share, up from $26.4 million, or 28 cents a share, a year ago. Excluding certain items, the electronic-payment services company earned $38.6 million, or 42 cents a share, compared with $43.1 million, or 46 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue tallied $228.6 million vs. $213.7 million in the year-ago quarter.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call expected EPS of 39 cents on sales of $229.5 million. For the second quarter, the company forecast revenue between $230 million and $235 million. CheckFree expects to earn 33 cents to 35 cents a share, with pro forma EPS ranging from 40 cents to 42 cents. Analysts forecast EPS of 45 cents and revenue of $238.3 million for the second quarter. Shares were falling $6.81, to $36.70.