Apple shares are up more than 6% this morning after a blockbuster quarterly earnings announcement yesterday afternoon. The company said strong sales of the iPhone 4S helped boost net income to $13.1 billion, or $13.87 per share, more than double net income during the same period last year. That’s almost $4.00 per share higher than the consensus forecast of analysts surveyed ahead of the announcement by Thomson Reuters. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer noted that the addition of a 14th week to the quarter helped results, but this does not account for the better-than-expected performance, since the company noted the addition of the extra week before the announcement.
Oppenheimer said that Apple sold 37 million iPhones during the 14 weeks ending December 31, compared to 16.2 million in the year-ago quarter. That’s a growth rate of more than 100% in a smartphone market that Apple says grew roughly 40% during the same period, according to IDC. Total revenue from iPhone handsets and accessories was $24.4 billion during the quarter.
Apple says that almost all the top Fortune 500 companies now approve and support the iPhone, including Royal Dutch Shell, Kimberly Clark, Nike and Facebook.
“We were very pleased to begin shipping the iPhone 4S in China and 12 additional countries,” Oppenheimer said. In a conference call to discuss earnings, Apple admitted that it is running “a little short” on iPhones in some “key geographies.” Overall, Apple said it had 6 million iPhones in the channel at the end of the quarter.
“We were very please with record sales of 15. 4 million iPads,” said Oppenheimer. The growth rate for iPad sales was 111%, and Apple is focusing on the tablet’s adoption by enterprise customers. “We are delighted to learn how iPad enbales businesses to change the way they work,” Oppenheimer said.
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