Earnings: Apple Beats Wall Street Estimates To Post Its Best Non-Holiday Quarter Ever

This story was written by Tricia Duryee.

Apple posted revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share. Compared to the year-ago period, revenues jumped 8.7 percent and earnings per share increased 14.7 percent from $1.16 a share. That was able to beat Wall Street estimates that were predicting Apple to report its first year-over-year earnings decline in six years. The Street was expecting Apple's sales to increase by roughly 6 percent, while net profits were expected to slip by around 6 percent to $1.09.

Apple's CFO Peter Oppenheimer said in a release: "We are extremely pleased to report the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history. Apple's financial condition remains very robust, with almost $29 billion in cash and marketable securities on our balance sheet. Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter of 2009, we expect revenue in the range of about $7.7 billion to $7.9 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $.95 to $1.00."

Units sold: Apple sold 2.22 million Macs during the quarter, a 3 percent decline from the year-ago quarter; it sold 11.01 million iPods during the quarter, a three percent increase over the year-ago quarter; and it sold 3.79 million iPhones, representing a 123 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

Non-GAAP revenues: When the company takes into account the full impact of sales from the iPhone and Apple TV (instead of spreading the revenues out over the life of the products), the picture gets even rosier. Adjusted GAAP sales for the quarter are $9.06 billion.

By Tricia Duryee