Apple Trounces Wall Street Expectations On Record IPhone Sales

(RTTNews) - Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) results for the first quarter trounced Wall Street expectations on Tuesday. The tech giant reported its biggest quarterly revenues ever, helped largely by record iPhone shipments.

Apple sold 78.29 million iPhone units during holiday season quarter, generating $54.38 billion in revenues, helping to stop three consecutive quarters of iPhone sales and revenue declines. Analysts were expecting iPhone sales volume to be 76.3 million.

Apple's bottom line continues to be buoyed by iPhone sales, as it contributes about two-thirds of Apple's revenues and a major part of its profit.

Recently, Apple witnessed a slow down in the sales of iPhones largely due to a saturated smartphone market, sluggish demand in China -- Apple's second-biggest market after the U.S, and less frequent upgradation of iPhones by customers. However, a strong demand for the iPhones during the holiday season helped it trump analysts' expectations.

"We're thrilled to report that our holiday quarter results generated Apple's highest quarterly revenue ever, and broke multiple records along the way. We sold more iPhones than ever before and set all-time revenue records for iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO.

Apple reported first-quarter profit of $17.89 billion or $3.36 per share compared with $18.36 billion or $3.28 per share last year. Analysts had expected the company to earn $3.22 per share, according to figures compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Despite strong demand for iPhones, profit dropped from a year ago due to a decline in gross margins.

Apple said its revenues rose to $78.35 billion from last year's $75.87 billion. Analysts had predicted revenues of $77.38 billion.

Looking forward to the second quarter, Apple expects revenue between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion. Analysts currently project revenues of $53.94 billion.

AAPL closed Tuesday's trading at $121.35, down $0.28 or 0.23%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, gained $3.40 or 2.80% in the after-hours trade.