Amazon’s profit blows past forecasts, up 41%

Amazon’s first-quarter profit and sales smashed Wall Street expectations, sending the e-commerce giant’s shares soaring in after-hours trading.

The surge sent the net worth of Chief Executive Jeff Bezos to $79 billion — a virtual tie with Amancio Ortega Gaona, the founder of the Zara apparel chain, for the No. 2 global position behind just Bill Gates’ $87.3 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Over the last five years, boosted by Amazon’s meteoric growth, Bezos’ net worth has increased an average of $35 million a day — or $24,000 a minute.

Amazon, whose market cap should pass the $450 billion mark on Friday, saw its retail sales and cloud-computing businesses perform well in the quarter.

Net profit rose 41 percent, to $724 million, or $1.48 per share, marking the eighth-straight quarter that Amazon — known for its heavy spending and roller- coaster results — has posted a net profit. Wall Street expected $1.12 per share. Sales gained 23 percent, to $35.71 billion, slightly ahead of forecasts — despite there being one day fewer to shop this year. February 2016 had a leap day. Amazon has taken advantage of the world’s migration to online sales — as well as businesses moving their data to the cloud.

Amazon Web Services is there to collect the fees. Its sales jumped 43 percent, to $3.66 billion.

Shares of the company jumped 3.8 percent in late trading Thursday, to $954.

Amazon has said it plans to build new warehouses and create more than 130,000 full-time and part-time jobs by mid-2018 to speed up deliveries.

It is also investing more than $5 billion in India to gain market share.