Apple Inc.'s fiscal third quarter net income jumped 31 percent, beating analysts' average estimate while revenue climbed 38 percent on strong sales of the company's Macintosh computers and solid contributions from the consumer products business.
However, Apple's revenue forecast for the fiscal fourth quarter ending Sept. 30 was more than half a billion dollars below analysts' consensus estimate of $8.32 billion, forcing investors to dump the stocks in after hour trading.
Apple's share price fell as much as $14.55 or 9 percent in after-hour trading to $151.74. The stock had closed up $1.34 during regular trading.
Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple said net income in the quarter ended June 28, climbed to $1.07 billion, up 31 percent from the $818 million net profit posted in the June 2007 quarter. Revenue during the same period soared 38 percent, to $7.5 billion from $5.4 billion. Analysts were on the average expecting the company to report revenue of $7.4 billion for the June quarter.
"We're proud to report the best June quarter for both revenue and earnings in Apple's history," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a statement. "We set a new record for Mac sales, we think we have a real winner with our new iPhone 3G and we're busy finishing several more wonderful products to launch in the coming months."
Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said the company expects revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter would be approximately $7.8 billion with earnings per share coming in at $1.00.
The company's shipment of Macintosh computers climbed 41 percent during the recently ended quarter to 2.5 million units while more than 11 million iPods were sold during the same period. iPhone shipment more than doubled to 717,000 units from 270,000 units in the fiscal 2007 third quarter.