Amazon.com shares zoom to record high

SEATTLE, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A better-than-expected earnings report prompted investors to push U.S. online retailer Amazon.com's stock price to an all-time high.

The Seattle retailer's shares jumped $25.04 Friday to $118.49 per share, well past its dot-com-boom-era previous high of $106.69, adjusted for splits, The Seattle Times reported.

Investors responded to a third-quarter earnings report released late Thursday indicating Amazon's profit zoomed to $199 million, up from $118 million in the year-earlier quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations. Sales rose 28 percent to $5.45 billion despite the shaky economy.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and chief executive officer, predicted further sales growth of 21 percent to 36 percent for the fourth quarter and a jump in operating income of between 10 percent and 56 percent, documents indicated.

"It appears Amazon is continuing to gain market share at the expense of both its e-commerce and bricks-and-mortar competitors," Hudson Square Research analyst Scott Tilghman told the Times. "It's still a challenging economic environment," he added, saying the company's wide price ranges are helping it.