Apple earnings: $36B revenue, $8.2B profit, 26.9M iPhones, 14M iPads

Apple’s knack for surprises held up in its quarterly earnings today (Thursday). The company narrowly beat expectations on revenue, but missed on profits.

Buoyed by sales of the iPhone and iPad, the company reported revenue of $36 billion and profits of $8.2 billion, or $8.67 per share, for the quarter ended September 29.

Wall Street expected Apple to report $35.80 billion in sales, with earnings per share of $8.75. Apple’s own forecast for the quarter was $34 billion, with earnings per share of $7.65.

“We’re very proud to end a fantastic fiscal year with record September quarter results,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “We’re entering this holiday season with the best iPhone, iPad, Mac, and iPod products ever, and we remain very confident in our new product pipeline.”

Apple sold 26.9 million iPhones, exceeding Wall Street’s estimate of 25 million, and up 58 percent from the same quarter last year. The company did not disclose how many of that tally were iPhone 5s. The product was only on sale for nine days before the quarter ended.

The iPad was Apple’s runner-up in sales. Apple said it sold 14 million of the tablets, which was well below from the 17 to 18 million analysts were expecting. However many analysts cut their forecasts for the tablet immediately after Apple’s iPad Mini event earlier this week. That came after Apple said it had sold more than 100 million of the devices cumulatively, which put most estimates closer to 16 million and below for the quarter.

As far as Apple’s other products go, Apple sold 4.9 million Macs, a number that came in under its all-time record of 5.2 million Macs from the first quarter of 2011. The company also sold 5.3 million iPods, narrowly coming in under Wall Street’s estimate of 5.6 million units.

Of note, Apple said that international sales made up 60 percent of the company’s revenue from the quarter. That’s down 2 percent from the previous quarter, and 3 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

Apple, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., expects revenue of $52 billion and projected earnings of $11.75 per share for its next quarter. That’s below the $54.9 billion forecast by Wall Street.

In after-hours trading, Apple shares were trading at $613.28, up $3.48 or 0.57 percent.

CULLED FROM: CNET