Apple reported quarterly earnings Tuesday that managed to surpass even Wall Street’s lofty expectations after analysts predicted a record quarter for the tech giant. Apple did, in fact, post record sales numbers following strong holiday sales that included a 46% increase in iPhone sales.
Here are the key points from Apple’s earnings release for the first quarter of its 2015 financial year.
Wall Street was expecting huge numbers from the quarter, which included the holidays and the first full quarter of sales for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Apple certainly did not disappoint. In fact, the only surprise was just how much the company’s sales improved.
Apple racked up $74.6 billion in revenue last quarter, a 29.5% gain on the same period a year before. Earlier on Tuesday, Fortune polled 35 analysts who expected revenue to increase by about 20%, to $68.7 billion, while Apple’s own guidance for the quarter predicted $66.5 billion in quarterly revenue.
A larger-than-expected bump in holiday iPhone sales propelled Apple to record sales and the best quarterly earnings of any company ever. Apple reported a whopping $18 billion in first-quarter profits, or $3.08 per share. It tops the previous record-holder, Russia’s GazProm, which recorded a $16 billion quarterly profit in 2011, while Exxon Mobil held the previous record for a U.S. company with nearly $15 billion in a quarter of 2008.
In a statement, Apple CEO Tim Cook thanked his company’s customers “for an incredible quarter, which saw demand for Apple products soar to an all-time high.”
Cook, who took over for Steve Jobs in 2011, has watched Apple’s market value double during his tenure as CEO. The company’s shares, which had been slightly down for the year, jumped nearly 5% in after-hours trading after the earnings report.
The company said it expects revenue between $52 billion and $55 billion in the current quarter.