Apple served up good news for investors Tuesday with record quarterly revenue and net profit for its fiscal third quarter ending June 25. The computing and consumer electronics titan easily beat its own guidance and the Street's expectations with sales of $28.57 billion and earnings of $7.31 billion for earnings per share of $7.79.
"We're thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, in a statement. "Right now, we're very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall."
The company had offered guidance for $23 billion in revenue and EPS of $5.03 for its June quarter, while Wall Street analysts had collectively pegged those figures at $24.72 billion and $5.71.
Apple's sales were up from $15.7 billion in last year's fiscal third quarter, and also bettered the company's revenue of $24,667 in its fiscal second quarter of 2011. Gross margin improved from 39.1 percent in the year-ago period to 41.7 percent in 2011's June quarter.
Apple also reported 142 percent year-over-year growth for sales of its iPhone, while iPad tablet sales grew 183 percent as compared with the fiscal third quarter of 2010.
In the midst of its March quarter of this year, Apple pre-announced the release of its second-generation iPad, possibly hurting its tablet sales figures for part of that period, while an apparent inventory shortfall of iPad 2s also may have played a part in lower-than-expected tablet revenue.
If so, the iPad came roaring back in the June quarter, with sequential gains in unit sales of 97 percent and gains in iPad-related revenue of 113 percent.
In its June quarter, Apple showed tremendous gains in Asian markets in particular. The company reported a 57 percent year-over-year increase in units shipped to the Asia Pacific region and a whopping 247 percent jump in sales revenue.
Apple's desktop and laptop sales figures all showed healthy, double-digit growth in terms of units shipped and revenue as compared with the June quarter of a year ago. But unit shipments and revenue for the company's laptop line, which includes the MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro, were flat against 2011's second fiscal quarter.
One area where Apple is losing ground is with its iPod music players. Revenue for the iPod dropped 17 percent sequentially and 14 percent year-over-year.
"We are extremely pleased with our performance which drove quarterly cash flow from operations of $11.1 billion, an increase of 131 percent year-over-year," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO, in a statement. "Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $25 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $5.50."