Apple shipped 7.4 million iPhones in its fiscal fourth quarter, the most it has ever sold, besting the 6.9 million it shipped in the quarter following the launch of the iPhone 3G last year. The iPhone figures helped anchor Apple’s most profitable quarter ever.
The company had a net profit of $1.67 billion, up 46 percent from the $1.14 billion profit it had in the year-ago quarter. The smartphone and computer maker also booked $9.87 billion in revenue, up 25 percent from $7.9 billion in the year-ago quarter. Apple’s gross margin was 36.6 percent, up from 34.7 percent in the same period last year.
Investors roared their approval of the results–which surpassed analyst expectations–sending Apple’s stock up more than 7 percent in after-hours trading immediately following the news to around $200 per share.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs sounded a confident tone in the company’s earnings release: “We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.”
The Apple Financial Call will be available as a webstream, or within iTunes later today.
OUR TAKE: Apple’s vision and innovation have enabled it to become a runaway profit machine. Gross margins were up to an unbelievable 36.6%, which rocketed profits 46% to $1.67 billion for the quarter. Yeah, that’s a lot of cash. Companies like Dell and HP are lucky if they can squeeze 5% profits out of their products.