Following the release of its fiscal third-quarter results, the rise in its stock prices sent Apple back over the $1 trillion market value mark. The Cupertino-based tech giant managed to post better than expected results for its fiscal third quarter, boosting investor confidence in the stock in Tuesday's post-market trading.
Apple reported earnings of $2.18 per share, higher than the initial analysts' estimates of $2.10. The company also managed to slightly beat revenue expectations of $53.3 billion by posting revenues of $53.8 billion for its fiscal third quarter.
Following the release of its earnings for the quarter, Apple shares jumped by as much as 4 percent, sending the company's market valuation back over the $1 trillion marks.
The company credited its strong quarterly earnings from the sales of its services and wearables. The increase in the particular segment managed to offset the company's slowing hardware sales. Apple has been trying to reinvent itself as a company that offers more than just iPhones.
The tech giant has pushed to offer customers an entire ecosystem that integrates its robust software offerings with its hardware products.
Hardware sales, particularly for the company's iPhone products, slowed down across all markets. Sales did not meet analysts' expectations for the quarter, falling below the $26.3 billion estimates to $25.9 billion. However, the expected fall in revenues in China wasn't a bad as expected, with Chinese sales decelerating far less sharply than initially anticipated.
Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned during the earnings call that the report was the company's biggest June quarter yet. Cook specifically mentioned the increase in the company's wearable and services revenues and the strong performance of its iPad and Mac products this year. The CEO further boosted investor confidence by stating that the company was seeing promising results across the board and that they were confident of the results for the quarters ahead.
Apple also revealed its revenue forecast for the next quarter, which remained at a healthy range of between $61 billion to $64 billion. The forecast was well above analysts' expectations for the company's fiscal fourth quarter. Apple expects its gross margin to improve in the next quarter as it fully intends to keep its operating expenses under control.
Apple is expected to hold another conference call to elaborate further on the breakdown of its services sales, which will include figures for the sales of its App Store, iTunes, and Apple Card services. The company is expected to also detail the deals it had made with Intel and its recent settlement with Qualcomm.
