Amazon To End 2015 At All-Time High

It’s been a big week for Amazon.

According to Amazon’s annual holiday postmortem, at least 3 million new members were added to Amazon Prime’s rolls this holiday season. Amazon did not disclose a specific number for that, though the release does note it being in the “tens of millions” — a figure that would accurately describe any number of members between 20 million and 90 million.

The current going high-side estimate, care of Mark Mahaney of RBC Capital, pegs the global figure at around 80 million, with 50 million U.S. subscribers. Lower-end estimates peg U.S. enrollment in Prime at around 44 million (as of fall 2015).

And now, analysts’ reports are even more bullish about Amazon, as it was trading up nearly 20 points, a 2.87 percent increase, by midday on Tuesday (Dec. 29). To put its stock price (694.36) into context, it’s the highest it’s ever been. A year ago, Amazon’s stock was at 310.30.

What a difference a year makes, indeed.

Now, some forecasts for Amazon’s next quarterly earnings show that FY 2015 could ring in at over $100 million in sales. That’s expected to continue upward drastically over the next five years as the expectations for eCommerce rise greatly. EMarketer’s data pegs global eCommerce sales at roughly $3 trillion by the year 2018. In 2014, Amazon’s sales were $89 billion.

A year ago, analysts weren’t quite as bullish about Amazon, as most of 2014 was spent explaining to investors why Amazon’s investment mode made it difficult to turn a profit. Luckily for Amazon, by the start of 2015, things started to turn around, and the eCommerce giant shocked those analysts and investors by posting a profit.

While investors may not have been so keen on Amazon a year ago, Amazon’s 20-plus years of history is now showing that Jeff Bezos’ empire is coming together. Since 1997, when Amazon went public, the company has grown annual revenues from $147 million to nearly $89 billion in 2014.

And based on the recent stock price trends of this eCommerce giant, it seems Bezos may be prepped to give analysts and investors exactly what they’re looking for when the fourth quarter earnings reports come out at the end of January.