Amazon posted an operating profit of $1.1 billion in the first quarter ended March 31, 2016, up from $255 million in the first quarter of 2015. Revenue jumped 28%, to $29.1 billion, over the first quarter of 2015 and the company had net income of $513 million compared to a net loss of $57 million last year. The results exceeded most analysts's expectations.
The boost to the bottomline benefited from Amazon’s cloud service which had operating income of $604 million in the quarter on revenue of $2.57 billion. Amazon’s North American operation had income of $588 million on revenue of almost $17 billion while the international unit lost $121 million on sales of $9.6 billion.
Among the highlights cited by chairman Jeff Bezos in the company’s press release was that Amazon sold twice as many Fire tablets in the most recent quarter as the first period of 2015.
In looking at sales by product segment, media sales in North America rose 8% in the quarter, while sales of electronics and other general merchandise jumped 32%. International media sales increased 7%, while egm sales overseas rose 31%.
For the second quarter, Amazon predicted that total revenue will rise between 21% and 32% in the second quarter of 2016 over the comparable period in 2015.
