A Hawaii island producer of nutritional supplements made from algae turned higher sales into a $501,000 profit in its fiscal first quarter after having a $691,000 loss in the same period last year.

Cyanotech Corp. reported its income Thursday and said sales rose 20 percent to $8.8 million in the recent quarter from $7.3 million a year earlier.

The company attributed the sales boost and profit mainly to selling more product — astaxanthin and spirulina branded under the Nutrex Hawaii name — through Costco and Amazon.

“Our results this quarter reflected our continuing strategic focus on marketing our Nutrex Hawaii branded products at retail, as well as improved production practices and reduction in our cost structure,” Gerry Cysewski, the company’s CEO, said in a statement.

Cyanotech said in a financial report that its primary focus this fiscal year, which started with the three months ended June 30, is building its consumer brands, increasing astaxanthin production and improving the consistency of astaxanthin and spirulina production.

In the recent quarter Cyanotech said it could not fulfill all demand for packaged spirulina products because of low production in the prior January-March quarter.

Packaged spirulina sales rose 22 percent in the recent quarter largely through online sales at Amazon, Cyanotech said. Packaged astaxanthin sales jumped 51 percent primarily because of more business through Costco, the company added.

All packaged product sales for Cyanotech in its fiscal first quarter rose 42 percent, and were offset by a 34 percent decline in bulk, unbranded product sales. The bulk product sales decrease was primarily the result of the spirulina production shortage, the company said.

Shares of Cyanotech stock, which trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market, rose $1, or 28.8 percent, to close at $4.50 Thursday after the earnings announcement. That was up from $3.50 on Wednesday. Thursday’s closing price compared with a 52-week high and low of $4.70 on Jan. 3 and $3.25 on July 10, respectively.