CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple needed a win, and it got one Tuesday with its fiscal first-quarter earnings results.
Led by improvements in sales of iPhones, Mac computers and services, Apple said that for the three months ending in December, it earned $3.36 a share on revenue of $78.4 billion. During the year-ago period, Apple had earned $3.28 a share on $75.9 billion in sales.
The results topped the estimates of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who had forecast Apple to earn $3.22 a share on $77.4 billion in revenue. Apple, itself, had earlier said it expected sales for the quarter to be between $76 billion and $78 billion.
In a statement, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said that Apple “broke multiple records” during the quarter, including setting company bests for sales from iPhones, Macs and services.
Apple had struggled through most of the previous year. In each of its last three quarters, it had reported sales that had declined on a year-over-year basis.
However, buoyed by Christmas and holiday season sales, Apple said it sold more than 78 million iPhones during the last three months of 2016, a 5 percent increase over the same period in 2015.
Mac sales revenue rose 7 percent, to $7.24 billion, while services sales climbed by 18 percent, to $7.2 billion.
Revenue from iPads fell by 22 percent, to $5.53 billion.
The better-than-expected results inspired investors’ enthusiasm for Apple stock, as the company’s shares rose 2.5 percent to $124.30 in after-hours trading.
Apple said that for its current, fiscal second quarter, it expects revenue to be in a range of $51.5 billion to $53.5 billion. Analysts had earlier forecast Apple’s second-quarter sales to reach $54 billion.
