Amazon’s Prime Surge Delights Wall Street

Amazon is back in a groove, buoyed by the holiday season and an apparently surging Amazon Prime membership that the company said has grown to 150 million Prime members.   The tech giant reported on Thursday that it boosted its revenues in the fourth quarter to $87.4 billion, a 21 percent increase from the last quarter and above its projections in October. The results pleased investors, who drove its shares up 10.9 percent to $2,074.16 in aftermarket trading. In the third quarter, the company had projected to hit net sales between $80 billion and $86.5 billion. Its net income for the fourth quarter rose to $3.3 billion, while its earnings per share were $6.47.  The tech giant continues to prize its Amazon Prime membership program, having taken steps to sweeten the deal for Prime customers by introducing faster deliveries and more products. Amazon had first invested some $800 million in free one-day delivery, a feature it seems to have gone all in on since last year, and spent more on since, as it tries to bulk up Prime membership. The company plans to expand one-day shipping in 2020.   The web giant also made Amazon Fresh deliveries free for Prime Members, a service it had offered

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