Apple Earnings Blow Past Expectations; Shares Rise
Apple reported quarterly earnings and revenue that beatWall Street's expectations on Tuesday, sending its shares higherin extended-hours trading.
After the earnings announcement, the technology giant's shares rose 4percent in trading after the closing bell. (Click here to get the latest quotes for Apple.)
In the past two weeks, Apple stock has dropped 12 percent, falling into correction territory, after rallying 75 percent from late November to a closing high of $636.23 on April 9.
The company posted fiscal second-quarter earnings excluding items of $12.30 per share, up from $6.40 a share in the year-earlier period.
Net income was $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per share, up from $6 billion, or $6.40 per share, a year ago.
Revenue shot up 59 percent to $39.2 billion from $24.67 billion a year ago.
Analysts had expected the company to report earnings excluding items of $10.04 a share on $36.81 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.
"Apple once again surprises on the upside despite expectations that iPhone sales would lag,” said Michael Yoshikami, CEO of YCMNet Advisors. “Clearly iPad results are driving results, as well as international sales. This is consistent with Apple continuing to capture market share against Android."
Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones in the quarter, up 88 percent from a year ago; iPad sales more than doubled to 11.8 million; and Mac sales increased 7 percent to 4 million. Apple sold 7.7 million iPods, a 15-percent decline from a year ago.
Apple, true to form, projected guidance that was lower than analysts currently expect: The company said it sees earnings of $8.68 a share on revenue of $34 billion for the fiscal third quarter; the current consensus is for earnings of $9.93 a share on revenue of $37.4 billion. Apple is typically light on guidance and beats analysts' expectations as they did in this latest quarterly report.
The company said its stash of cash, short-term and long-term securities added up to $110 billion. To put this into perspective, Apple's cash hoard tops the individual market caps of all but 20 companies in the S&P 500.
Some mobile providers' earnings reports have reported weaker iPhone sales at their companies.
Earlier in the day, AT&T reported quarterly profitthat beat estimates as iPhone sales declined, which reduced the amount of cash that the mobile provider had to pay Apple and boosted its margins. Rival Verizon also posted fewer iPhone activations in its quarterly earnings report.
On Tuesday, a judge for the International Trade Commission ruled that Apple infringedon a Motorola Mobility Holdings patent in making its iPhones, iPads and other products.
The judge said in a preliminary ruling that the company infringed on a patent for eliminating noise and other interference during voice and data transmissions.
The full commission will now review the judge's decision and issue a final ruling in August.
Several Apple product suppliers, including Broadcom , NXP Semiconductors , Qualcomm , Texas Instruments and TriQuint Semiconductor , also posted gains in after-hours trading.