Apple shares spike on record report, 37M iPhones sold

In its first $40+ billion quarter, Apple blows every expectation out of the water

Shares of Apple jumped 8% in after-hours trading to $454, after posting late Tuesday that strong iPhone sales drove earnings to more than double to $10.57 billion on record revenue of $46.3 billion, handily beating analysts' estimates for the quarter.  

Analysts were expecting Apple's Q1 earnings report to be positive. But, in short, the company's report exceeded all expectations. Earnings increased a staggering 113% to $13.1 billion, up from $6 billion in the year-ago quarter, and well ahead of analysts' projections of $9.95 billion.

Revenue was up 73% from the previous quarter, to $46.3 billion, well above expectations $38.85 billion, according to consensus forecasts by Reuters Thomson. This is Apple's first $40+ billion quarter ever. 

Apple even blew the doors off of the most highest projections, which came from Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research.  Sacconaghi projected that Apple would report $10.57 billion quarterly earnings. 

Sacconaghi also projected 31.9 million iPhones sold. Apple actually reported the sale of a whoppping 37.04 million iPhones sold.

Sacconaghi projected that iPad sales would "remain robust despite the launch of the $200 Kindle Fire," as was indicated in his  report. He also indicated the belief that strong sales of the Kindle Fire were primarily market-expanding rather than as a direct competitor to the iPad. A JP Morgan analyst, Mark Moskowitz, also thought that the iPad would show strong performance, in spite of a perceived lack of interest from investors.

"The iPad seems to have been forgotten, in our view," said Moskowitz, in his statement, emailed to VatorNews. "We think that the iPad could surpass investor expectations in Dec-Q, despite the sales momentum of the Amazon Kindle Fire at the low end of the tablet market. While end customers increasingly anticipate the iPad 3 launch, which we think is later in the Mar-Q, a strong Dec-Q showing could allay investor concerns that the iPad may not evolve into another iPhone-like growth story."

But neither projected the huge iPad sales reported by Apple Tuesday. The company said it sold 15.43 million iPads, which is two million more than Sacconaghi's projections, already well over consensus. The only part of Apple's report that was down was iPod sales, which clocked in at 15.4 million. This is up for the quarter but down 21% from the previous year.

"We're thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs," said Apple CEO TIm Cook, via the company's release. "Apple's momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline."

Incredibly strong? Yeah, we'll say.