Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares are surging in pre-market trading today as the iPhone maker delivered yet another blowout quarter. The Cupertino, California-based technology giant reported second-quarter profit that beat Street estimates, driven by better-than-expected iPhone sales in China.
Apple, which is the world’s most valuable technology company in terms of market capitalization, after-market close on Tuesday said that its second-quarter profit nearly doubled due to an increase in iPhone sales. The second-quarter results have eased concerns that the iPhone is past its best days in terms of growth.
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said that the company is thrilled with sales of more than 35 million iPhone and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter. According to Cook, the new iPad is off to a great start and across the year there will be a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver.
During the second quarter of fiscal 2012, Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones, which represents an 88% unit growth over the year-ago quarter. The tech giant sold 11.8 million iPads during the quarter, which represents an increase of 151% over the same period in the previous year. The company sold 4 million Macs in the quarter and 7.7 million iPods.
For the second quarter ended March 31, 2012, Apple reported revenue of $39.2 billion, compared with revenue of $24.7 billion reported for the same period in the previous year. The iPhone maker posted a net profit of $11.6 billion for the quarter, or $12.30 per diluted share. This is almost double from the $6 billion, or $6.40 per diluted share the company reported in the second quarter of fiscal 2011. Apple’s gross margin for the quarter improved from 41.4% to 47.4% in the second quarter of fiscal 2012.
Peter Oppenheimer, CFO of Apple, said that AAPL’s record March quarter drove $14 billion in cash flow from operations. Oppenheimer said that looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter, AAPL expects revenue of about $34 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $8.68.
The strong second-quarter results led Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope to raise his price target on Apple to $850.
Apple shares are up 9.32% to $612.49 in pre-market trading today.
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