Apple has announced its 3rd quarter earnings. And, once again, the tech giant beat the street.
On Tuesday after the close of trading on Wall Street, the Cupertino-based technology juggernaut blew consensus estimates out of the water (which had previously forecast 3Q earnings of $14.75 billion) with actual earnings totaling $15.74 billion.
The company’s Q4 revenue guidance comes in at $18 billion vs. $17.03 Street consensus. Q4 EPS guidance, meanwhile, is $3.44 vs. $3.82 Street consensus.
Fueling the stellar 3rd quarter performance by Apple were astonishingly strong sales for most of Apple’s popular product line.
During the quarter that ended June 30th, Apple shipped 3.27 million iPads, 3.47 million Macs, and 9.4 million iPods. With regard to Q3 iPhone shipments, only 8.4 million were shipped, which comes in beneath the consensus estimates.
Even in the aftermath of the PR nightmare born of “Antennagate,” Apple’s fiscal strength has largely been unscathed, if not downright invincible. Predicting 4th quarter earnings of 18 billion, Apple has been known to give conservative earnings guidance in hopes of easily surpassing expectations. If the company is up to its usual tricks, perhaps 4Q earnings will similarly amaze the same analysts and investors who drove Apple stock up 4% in after-hours trading on news of the company’s solid 3Q performance.
