Amazon Profit Hits $513 Million in Q1 2016

Amazon’s profit surged to $513 million in Q1 of 2016, helped by a 28% jump in sales.

The company’s sales hit $29.1 billion for Q1 of 2016, helped by rising sales of its Kindle reading devices and Fire tablet computers.

Both sales and profits were higher than analysts had been expecting and Amazon shares jumped in after hours trading.

Amazon reported strong growth in customers for its Prime service, which includes free delivery and TV shows.

The results were a positive sign for investors who had been rattled by disappointing earnings from Apple and Microsoft.

Amazon’s cloud services unit was an important source of sales growth.

The cloud business rents data storage space and software services to companies, and is Amazon’s fastest growing unit.

Amazon’s revenue rose 64% year-over-year, reaching $2.5 billion.

Investors have been watching Amazon’s cloud operation closely, particularly after one of its biggest customers, Apple, announced it would be moving some of its business elsewhere.

Since the start of 2016 Amazon has added new televisions shows and films to its Prime service, which helped to attract new users.

In April, the company introduced options to pay monthly for the service.

The plan is part of an effort to compete with video streaming services like Netflix and Hulu.

Amazon also attributed the increased number of Prime members to the expanded list of products eligible for free two-day shipping.

It did not detail sales of devices like the Kindle and Fire table, but did say that the division has seen growth.

“Amazon devices are the top selling products on Amazon, and customers purchased more than twice as many Fire tablets than first quarter last year,” CEO Jeff Bezos said.