Apple shares rocketed over 12%, up $7.00, to $61.10 in pre-market trading after the Cupertino Mac- and iPod-maker reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that rose 48% and topped Wall Street expectations, helped by a better-than-anticipated gross margin performance.
Apple reported the second highest quarterly sales and earnings in the company’s history.
The company posted revenue of $4.37 billion and a net quarterly profit of $472 million, or $.54 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $3.52 billion and a net profit of $320 million, or $.37 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 30.3 percent, up from 29.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 39 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
Apple shipped 1,327,000 Macintosh computers and 8,111,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 12 percent growth in Macs and 32 percent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter.
Looking ahead to Q4 06, Apple expects revenue of between $4.5 to $4.6 billion.
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