We’re running out of superlatives for Amazon

Amazon’s first quarter profit doubled from what it reported a year ago to $1.6 billion. Which is shocking in and of itself. But the real surprise is the fact that analysts were actually expecting it to shrink year over year!

Amazon’s sales in the quarter grew at an explosive 43% clip to $51 billion, also incredible considering the size of this company. Cloud computing and web services revenues leapt by 50% to $5.4 billion – this segment is now on a $20 billion annual run rate.

And then they dropped the news that US Prime subscriptions will increase from a hundred bucks to a hundred twenty bucks. Which doesn’t sound like a big deal until you realize:

a) there are 100 million Prime members (not all US)

b) all of them will pay the increase without batting an eye

The business is on fire. Jeff Bezos is the world’s richest man and the company could become the world’s first trillion dollar market cap.

What a thing to behold. What a time to be alive. What a rebuke for investors who’ve been taught to focus on trailing twelve months’ earnings and PE ratios. (Read: Cash Flow.)

You can find a thousand companies selling at a market PE multiple or below. You’ll know them by the miasma of fear they’re surrounded by, a terror being inflicted by the leviathan of Seattle.

Who does Bezos come after next? Banks? Insurance companies? Auto dealers? Washington D.C. itself? J. Pierpont Morgan is looking down from heaven upon the pure concentration of power this company has and he’s dropping to his knees in awe.