SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Apple Inc. reported blowout earnings growth for the December quarter as strong holiday sales of the iPhone and iPad drove the company’s results for the period.
The report came a day after Apple /quotes/comstock/15*!aapl/quotes/nls/aapl (AAPL 346.88, +6.23, +1.83%) disclosed that Chief Executive Steve Jobs would be going on another medical leave — this time for an undetermined period. Shares of Apple slipped about 2.3% during Tuesday’s regular session; they were halted in the after-hours session when the results were announced. Read full story on Jobs's medical leave.
The company also parted with its customarily conservative forecast with an outlook for the March quarter that was also well ahead of Wall Street’s estimates.
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For the first fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, Apple reported net income of $6 billion, or $6.43 per share, compared with net income of $3.38 billion or $3.67 per share for the same period the previous year.
Revenue jumped more than 70% to $26.74 billion.
Analysts were expecting earnings of $5.42 per share on revenue of $24.4 billion, according to consensus forecasts from FactSet Research.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said it sold 16.24 million iPhones for the quarter; analysts, on average, were expecting iPhone sales around 15.9 million units. About 7.3 million iPads shipped during the period compared with estimates calling for about 6.3 million units shipped.
About 4.1 million desktop and laptop Macs were sold during the quarter, in line with analysts’ forecasts.
For the current quarter, Apple said it expects revenue of $22 billion with earnings per share of $4.90. Analysts had been expecting revenue of $20.9 billion with earnings of $4.48 per share for the period.
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