Apple Inc. (AAPL) said Tuesday after the markets closed that its first quarter profit more than doubled from last year, driven by strong holiday sales of its iPhones and iPad multimedia devices. The company's quarterly earnings per share also breezed past Wall Street expectations as did its quarterly sales. At the same time, the company forecast second quarter sales and earnings above analysts' current consensus estimates.
The Cupertino, California-based computing and electronics company reported net income for the first quarter of $13.06 billion or $13.87 per share, compared to $6.00 billion or $6.43 per share for the year-ago quarter.
On average, 48 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $10.08 per share for the first quarter.
Gross margin for the quarter improved to 44.7% from 38.5% in the prior year quarter, while operating margin for the quarter increased to 37.4% from 29.3% a year earlier.
Net sales for the first quarter surged 73% to $46.33 billion from $26.74 billion in the same quarter last year. International sales accounted for 58% of the quarter's revenue. Forty-six analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $38.85 billion for the first quarter.
"We're thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Apple's momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline."
Apple sold 5.2 million Macintosh computers during the first quarter, up 26% from the year-ago quarter.
iPhone sales jumped 128% year-over-year to 37.04 million units in the first quarter, while iPad sales surged 111% to 15.43 million units.The iPhone's huge success has attracted many technology majors to the lucrative smartphone market.
Apple started selling iPad, a tablet computer positioned in a category between a smartphone and a laptop, in April 2010. The company released the next version of the device, iPad 2, in March last year.
However, first quarter sales of the company's iPod music players dropped 21% to 15.4 million units in the quarter.
Cook took over as chief executive officer on August 24, succeeding the charismatic Steve Jobs. A little more than a month later, Jobs passed away on October 5, just a day after Apple unveiled the iPhone 4S. The latest quarter marks the company's first without Jobs.
Looking forward to the second quarter, Apple forecast revenue of about $32.5 billion and earnings of about $8.50 per share. Analysts currently expect the company to earn $8.03 per share on revenue of $32.04 billion for the second quarter.
Apple shares, which have traded in a range of $310.50 to $431.37 over the past year, closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $420.41, down $7.00 or 1.64%. The stock is currently gaining $34.48 or 8.20% in after hours trading following a brief trading halt. The company's market capitalization stands at $390.73 billion, making it the world's most valuable technology company.
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