Apple shares soared more than 6% to new record highs in after hours trading Wednesday morning, our time, after the company revealed a better than expected third quarter report.
In fact Apple surprised on the upside with its third quarter report revealing higher revenues, higher iPhone sales (than forecast) and higher earnings – a sort of triple treat for investors wondering if the world’s biggest company could keep the tech momentum going at the top end of the market.
The shares were up more than 5.8% in after hours trading at around 7am Sydney time, pushing the company’s value to more than $US830 billion which would be the highest ever.
The rise takes the increase in the company’s shares so far in 2017 to more than 30% against much smaller rises for the Dow and the S&P 500.
Apple said revenue rose 7.2% in the quarter, thanks to better-than-expected iPhone sales ahead of the smartphone’s 10th-anniversary edition launch later this year.
Revenue rose to $US45.41 billion from $US42.36 billion in the quarter, which is usually the company’s weakest. Analysts forecast $US44.89 billion.
Net profit rose to $US8.72 billion, from $US7.80 billion, or $1.42.
iPhone sales rose 1.6% to 41.03 million units in the third quarter ended July 1, above estimate of 40.7 million units, according to FactSet. Apple sold 40.4 million iPhones a year earlier. But they were down from the 50.8 million in the second quarter.
IPad sales jumped 14.8% year on year ( it was the best quarter for iPad sales outside a holiday quarter since 2015). iPad unit sales reached 11.4 million (and up 28% from the preceding quarter as well. Mac unit sales were 4.29 million.
Apple says revenue from services was a record at $US7.26 billion, up 22% year on year and a developing area of income as device sales slow.
China revenues were down about 10% year over year and 25% from last quarter – $US8 billion against estimates of $US8.57 billion
There had been fears many customers would wait for Apple to launch its new smartphones before deciding on upgrading or replacing their current devices. That usually results in iPhone demand tapering in the months before a release. The iPhone 8 is due in September, but there are now rumours it could be delayed due to production and component delays.
Apple says it is expecting revenue of between $49 billion and $52 billion for the current 4th quarter, while analysts expect $US49.21 billion, according to Thomson Reuters forecasts.
Analysts Apple to sell 45.55 million iPhones in the current quarter, according to FactSet. Apple sold 45.51 million iPhones in the year-ago quarter.
