Apple not only “beat the street” in today’s earnings report, it effectively blew the street up.
This afternoon, Apple delivered record-breaking quarterly earnings, a reality driven by strong iPad and iPhone sales during the fiscal 2011 third quarter ended June 25th.
According to Apple, earnings rose to $7.79 a share from $3.51 a share one year ago. The “street” had anticipated earnings of between $5 and $6 a share. Additionally, revenue spiked to $28.57 billion from $15.7 billion one year ago during the same quarter.
The Company sold 20.34 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.25 million iPads during the quarter, a 183 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.
“We’re thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent,” said Steve Jobs in a press release that accompanied the earnings report. “Right now, we’re very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall.”
“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,” added Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “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.”
