Apple Shares Up 4% As Q3 Results Beat Estimates

(RTTNews) - Shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL) gained 4 percent on extended trading session Tuesday after the iPhone maker reported a third-quarter profit and revenues that trumped Wall Street estimates. Apple also issued a strong revenue outlook for the current quarter.

Apple's third-quarter profit dropped to $10.04 billion or $2.18 per share from $11.52 billion or $2.34 per share last year. On average, 36 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $2.10 per share for the quarter.

Apple's revenues rose 1 percent to $53.81 billion from last year's $53.27 billion. Analysts had a consensus revenues prediction of $53.39 billion.

Apple's revenues from iPhones dropped to $25.99 billion from $29.47 billion last year. Mac sales rose to $5.82 billion from $5.26 billion last year, and iPad sales increased to $5.02 billion from $4.63 billion last year. Wearables, Home and Accessories segment improved to $5.53 billion from $3.73 billion last year, while services revenues increased to $11.46 billion from $10.17 billion a year ago.

"This was our biggest June quarter ever — driven by all-time record revenue from Services, accelerating growth from Wearables, strong performance from iPad and Mac and significant improvement in iPhone trends," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO.

Cook said the third-quarter results are promising across all geographic segments and the company is confident going forward.

Looking forward to the fourth quarter, Apple expects revenues between $61 billion and $64 billion. Analysts currently project revenues of $61.02 billion.

AAPL closed Tuesday's trading at $208.78, down $0.90 or 0.43%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, gained $9.22 or 4.42% in the after-hours trade.