Sales rose 39 percent to top out at $7.6 billion, as Amazon logged a blue ribbon third quarter.
Net income for the Seattle based company beat Wall Street’s expectations with $231 million or 51 cents per diluted share, up 16 percent from last year. Analysts had been predicting earnings of about 48 cents per share.
The robust earnings picture was helped in part by sales of the Kindle 3, which went on sale in June. The company also cut prices on earlier incarnations, with its most bare bones incarnation now selling for roughly $140.
Amazon would not disclose how many e-readers it had sold during the period, but it said the Kindle 3 was the fastest selling version yet.
"More new generation Kindle devices were ordered in the first 12 weeks of availability than in the same time frame following any other Kindle launch," Amazon said.
However the Internet retailer said operating expenses jumped 40 percent, because of an infrastructure expansion and the construction of 13 new fulfillment centers.
In a sign that consumers are shaking off some of the after shocks of the economic crisis, Amazon expected net sales between $12 billion and $13.3 billion, an increase of between 26 percent and 40 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2009.
All the good news wasn’t good enough for investors. Shares dropped 4.4 percent to $157.74 in after hours trading.
