Apple Shocks Investors with Record Second Quarter Results

Apple’s revenue in the fiscal second quarter, helped by strong sales of Mac computers and iPods, jumped 43%, while profits increased 36%. This was the strongest second quarter revenue in Apple’s history.

During the quarter, Apple shipped 2.3 million Macintosh  computers, sold 10.6 million iPods and 1.7 million iPhones.

Apple’s net profit rose to astonishing $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per share, from $770 million, or 87 cents per share, a year ago. According to Reuters Estimates, that beat average analyst forecasts for revenue of $6.95 billion and earnings per share of $1.07. U.S. revenue was up 40 percent, while international sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

“We’re delighted to report 43 percent revenue growth and the strongest March quarter revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With over $17 billion in revenue for the first half of our fiscal year, we have strong momentum to launch some terrific new products in the coming quarters.”

“We’re thrilled to have generated $4 billion in cash flow from operations in the first half of fiscal 2008, yielding an ending cash balance of $19.4 billion,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the third quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $7.2 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $1.00.”

Live re-play: the audio webcast of Apple’s conference call discussing Q2 - 2008 financial results is available at the company’s web site.