Amazon.com today reported strong fourth quarter profits that beat Wall Street analyst’s estimates.

The online retailer said its net income increased 71 percent to $384 million in the fourth quarter, or 85 cents per share, compared with $225 million, or 52 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Net sales increased 42 percent to $9.5 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with $ 6.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008.

"Millions of people now own Kindles," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.

"And Kindle owners read, a lot. When we have both editions, we sell 6 Kindle books for every 10 physical books. This is year-to-date and includes only paid books — free Kindle books would make the number even higher. It’s been an exciting 27 months."

Amazon said it expects its operating profit for the first quarter of 2010 to be between $275 million to $365 million, on revenue of $6.4 billion to $7 billion, for growth between 32 percent and 43 percent.

Shares rose 3.7 percent in after hours trading to $130.41 signaling investors were pleased with Amazon’s Q4 results.
 

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