Blockbuster sales of the iPhone and strong Asian business again helped Apple Inc crush Wall Street’s expectations, driving its shares up more than 7 percent to a record high and boosting Asian stocks. Sales of its iconic products far outpaced forecasts, helping drive a near-doubling of revenue in the fiscal third quarter.
Its shares leapt to a high of $405 after a brief after-hours trading suspension. Apple sold 20.34 million iPhones during the quarter versus an expected 17 million to 18 million, which analysts say helped it vault past Nokia and Samsung Electronics to become the world’s biggest smartphone maker.
That “figure may indeed make them the largest smartphone maker by volume, which is somewhat ironic in a quarter that many thought would be about the Mac,” said CCS Insight analyst John Jackson. “That they accomplished this without a new model speaks volumes about both their strength and the relative challenges facing competitors.”
Apple’s earnings beat was spectacular even by its own lofty track record. Its quarterly EPS beat the average forecast by 33 percent, versus beats of about 20 percent in the past two quarters. The stellar results came as concern over iPad 2 supply constraints eased, with Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer saying more than 1 million iPads remained in stock at the end of June but demand was still overstripping supply in some markets. Oppenheimer hinted at an upcoming product launch, saying it would impact the September quarter, but he gave no details.
