Apple released its third fiscal quarter earnings after closing bell tonight, posting diluted earnings of $1.85 per share and basic earnings of $1.86 per share on $49.6 billion in revenue, a 33% year over year increase. Analysts had been expecting the company to post non-GAAP earnings of $1.89 per share and revenue of $49.2 billion. Apple had guided for revenue of $46 billion to $48 billion.
In the same quarter last year, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) posted earnings of $1.40 per share and revenue of $37.4 billion.
Key metrics from Apple’s (AAPL) earnings report
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) sold 47.5 million iPhones, a 35% year over year increase during the quarter, amounting to $31.37 billion in sales, compared to the expectation of $30 billion. Analyst estimates for iPhone sales were very wide, ranging up to as many as 50 million, compared to the 35.2 million the company sold in last year’s June quarter.
The company sold $6.03 billion worth of Macs and $4.45 billion worth of iPads. “Other” revenue, which includes the Apple Watch, increased to $2.6 billion from last year’s $1.77 billion. However, Wall Street may be thinking that watch sales were light as analysts have been projecting $1.84 billion worth of Apple Watch sales. However, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s chief financial officer told the Associated Press that sales of the Apple Watch were “well over” the Other revenue category’s increase, whatever that means.
Gross margin was 39.7%, beating management’s guidance of between 38.5% and 39.5%.
“We had an amazing quarter, with iPhone revenue up 59 percent over last year, strong sales of Mac, all-time record revenue from services, driven by the App Store, and a great start for Apple Watch,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “The excitement for Apple Music has been incredible, and we’re looking forward to releasing iOS 9, OS X El Capitan and watchOS 2 to customers in the fall.”
Apple (AAPL) provides guidance
For the fourth fiscal quarter, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) management expects revenue to be between $49 billion and $51 billion and gross margin to be between 38.5% and 39.5%. They project between $5.85 billion and $5.95 billion in operating expenses. The consensus estimate for revenue is $50.8 billion.
As of this writing, shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) were down 6.93% at $121.70 per share in after-hours trades.