Apple iPhones, iPad Sales Beat Expectations; Shares Up by 8 Percent

Apple Inc's quarterly results blew past Wall Street's expectations after U.S. consumers snapped up near-unprecedented numbers of iPhones and iPads, sending its shares up 8 percent into record territory.

Apple

The world's most valuable technology corporation returned to form after a rare miss in the previous quarter, assuaging investors' worries that its sheer size meant it was headed into a period of slower growth.

It sold 37.04 million iPhones - its flagship product - and 15.43 million iPad tablets, doubling from a year earlier and easily outpacing already heightened expectations for a strong holiday season. That helped swell its cash hoard to almost $100 billion - more than enough to plug December's U.S. budget deficit.

Going into 2012, I expect strength of iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad should carry on into the year. Apple still has some tailwind, including opening up new retail stores and expanding its distribution channels, said Hendi Susanto at Gabelli & Co.

I would say Apple still has many unpenetrated international markets ... Apple is still far from its saturation.

The company founded by late Silicon Valley titan Steve Jobs - who died in October after a years-long battle with cancer - smashed estimates on all its results including gross margin, which came in at 44.7 percent during the quarter.

Revenue leapt 73 percent to $46.33 billion, handily beating the average Wall Street analyst estimate of $38.91 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Apple's sales in the United States were particularly strong, with revenue rising 90 percent in the Americas region. Sales in Europe were up 55 percent even though the region is in the grip of a debt crisis that has pummeled consumer confidence.

Shares in Apple leapt 8 percent to about $452 in extended trade following the earnings report. The stock - which set a record high of $427.75 just this month - closed at $420.41 on the Nasdaq.

MONSTER QUARTER

Several analysts had warned that Apple might face a rougher ride than usual in 2012.

Google Inc's Android, a free software to run smartphones, adopted heavily by Samsung Electronics, Motorola and others - is chipping away at Apple's market share. A host of tablets from Amazon.com Inc, among others, offers buyers viable alternatives.

And then there are the inherent difficulties in maintaining growth momentum. In fiscal 2011, Apple tacked on $43 billion to its revenue, which analysts likened to birthing a Fortune 500 from scratch - every year. Its market value stood just shy of $400 billion, rivalling Exxon Mobil for the title of largest U.S. corporation.

Still, some analysts said the stellar fiscal first quarter suggested such fears were premature, particularly given a 2012 pipeline that many expect to include the third iteration of the market-leading iPad and a fifth-generation iPhone that will trigger a new round of consumer mania.

Customer demand was off the charts in the quarter, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer told Reuters in an interview.

Apple reported a net profit of $13.06 billion, or $13.87 a share. Analysts had expected Apple to earn $10.16 per share.

Average projections for sales of Apple products during the fiscal first quarter, which includes the holiday shopping season and one more week than is typical, were for roughly 31 million iPhones, 13.5 million to 14 million iPads and 5 million Mac computers.

On Tuesday, Apple also forecast results for its fiscal second quarter that were ahead of analyst estimates. It expects revenue of about $32.5 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $8.50. Wall Street had expected earnings of $8.04 per share on revenue of $32.1 billion in the fiscal second quarter.

It sets up Apple well for the rest of the year, said Canaccord Genuity's Michael Walkley. They are still ramping up the new geographies like the iPhone 4 in China, which they just started selling in January and we'll see in March results.

iPhones and Siri (voice-activated software) still driving strong. An iPhone 5 for the end of the year with a new form factor and with LTE (next-generation mobile technology) will drive another set of gains in 2012, he added.