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

Apple wraps up its fiscal year with mixed fourth-quarter results. The company exceeds Wall Street's expectations on revenue, but misses on profits and iPad sales.

Josh Lowensohn Former Senior Writer
Josh Lowensohn joined CNET in 2006 and now covers Apple. Before that, Josh wrote about everything from new Web start-ups, to remote-controlled robots that watch your house. Prior to joining CNET, Josh covered breaking video game news, as well as reviewing game software. His current console favorite is the Xbox 360.
Josh Lowensohn
2 min read

Apple's knack for surprises held up in its quarterly earnings today.

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.

Apple will hold its conference call with analysts this afternoon at 2 p.m. Pacific to discuss the results. CNET will be live blogging it, and you can keep up with it here:

Tune into CNET's live coverage of Apple's fourth quarter earnings call at 2 p.m. Pacific.

Updated at 1:48 p.m. PT to the correct revenue total in the first graf.