Amazon closes in on $1,000 per share
Amazon is quickly approaching a new milestone: a share price of $1,000.
In Friday premarket trading, its stock price rose to around $950 after Amazon (AMZN) reported earnings on Thursday that exceeded some analysts' expectations. Revenue jumped 23 percent, while sales from its retail service, which includes Prime subscription fees, surged almost 50 percent.
Some analysts have predicted Amazon's shares are on track to surpass the $1,000-per-share mark. Barclays' Ross Sandler issued a forecast earlier this year saying the stock would reach $1,120 within 12 months. While not providing a specific time frame, Sandler also said Amazon will become the first company to reach a $1 trillion valuation.
The median forecast of all analysts following Amazon now stands at $970 per share. The stock surge places CEO Jeff Bezos about $5 billion short of becoming the world's richest person, according to Bloomberg.
"Amazon has created a very successful ecosystem of content and technology; this will support Prime subscriptions which, in turn, help make Amazon the destination of choice for buying products," wrote Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, in a research note.
Still, he added that the company faces some strong headwinds. It's investing to expand into new markets such as India, which will weigh on profitability, he noted. That may pay off over time, but it will put more pressure on Amazon's core U.S. business to boost profits.
"Even though the company's margins remain thin, a firmer grip on fulfillment costs is currently helping to deliver this," he added. "That said, we believe that there are some future risks in North America -- most notably from the more aggressive e-commerce push coming from Walmart and, to a lesser extent, other traditional players."
Bezos ranks as the world's third-richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His net worth stands at $79 billion, placing him neck-to-neck with Spain's Amancio Ortego, who has a net worth of $79.2 billion and just behind Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who's now worth $87.3 billion.