Profits for Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) more than doubled, as shares in after-hours trading soared by 12 percent.
Earnings in the first quarter increased to $111 million, equalling 26 cents per share. That is in comparison to $51 million, or 12 cents per share during last years first quarter.
It was a pleasant shock to analysts who had projected a much smaller profit of 15 cents per share.
Overall revenue for the online retailer grew by 32 percent to finish at $3.02 billion, 
far above expectations of $2.92 billion of the Street.
North American sales grew to $1.62 billion, a 30 percent gain, while international sales increased to $1.39 billion, a 35 percent jump. After exchange rates though, the international sales decreased to 27 percent.
Amazon.com's CEO Jeff Bezos attributed the North American growth strength to its Amazon Prime program, which has been criticized in the past as cutting into earnings. But now it looks like it's been justified by the sales growth. Amazon Prime is a free-shipping loyalty program.
A couple years ago the company asked investors to be patient as Amazon.com invested over $600 million in technology to improve its bottom line. This should be just the beginning of that investment paying off.
Looking ahead, Amazon.com said that revenue should come in between $2.70 billion and $2.85 billion. For the overall year, they project that they will grow from between $13.4 billion to $14 billion.
Another positive move by the company is that they've already bought back 6 million shares of the company this quarter at a cost of $248 million, and have been authorized by the board to spend an additional $500 million in a buyback program over the next two years.
It looks like Amazon is getting some of its magic back.
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