San Jose, Calif. – Apple’s fiscal third-quarter profit soared more than 73 percent, fueled by demand for its Macintosh computers, the strength of its iPod media players and the sales of 270,000 iPhones during their first two days on the market.
Apple shares jumped more than 6 percent in extended-session trading Wednesday, even as the company issued a conservative outlook that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.
For the quarter ended June 30, Apple’s profit rose to $818 million, or 92 cents a share, up from $472 million, or 54 cents a share in the year-ago quarter.
Sales grew to $5.41 billion from $4.37 billion last year.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected Apple to report earnings of 72 cents a share on sales of $5.28 billion while Apple itself had projected earnings of 66 cents a share on quarterly sales of $5.1 billion.
“We’re thrilled to report the highest June quarter revenue and profit in Apple’s history, along with the highest quarterly Mac sales ever,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive. “IPhone is off to a great start – we hope to sell our one-millionth iPhone by the end of its first full quarter of sales – and our new product pipeline is very strong.”
But for the quarter ending in September, Apple said it expects to earn about 65 cents a share on revenue of about $5.7 billion.
Analysts were expecting earnings of 83 cents a share on sales of $6 billion.
The gadget maker’s highly anticipated iPhone launched June 29 and sold out within days. Wall Street analysts and investors have had lofty expectations for the multimedia cellphone, driving up Apple’s stock more than 30 percent during the quarter.
Apple’s silence on how many iPhones were available at launch added to the frenzy.
On Wednesday, before Apple’s results were announced, its shares rose $2.37, or 1.8 percent, to close at $137.26.
