Shares in Apple Inc. traded higher Wednesday, bucking the trend to pare gains following a quarterly earnings announcement from the company. Apple turned in a non-holiday record quarter for the June quarter on Tuesday, and offered guidance ahead of expectations, and investors reacted by sending the stock higher on Monday.
AAPL closed at US$156.74, a gain of $5.23 (+3.45%), on strong volume of 30.87 million shares trading hands.
In the past, investors have often pushed Apple's stock higher in the days leading up to an earnings announcement, and then sold the following day, often because of lackluster forward guidance offered by the company, that it would then go on to beat.
On Tuesday, Apple reported revenue of $8.34 billion, up 11.7% from the year ago quarter of $7.46 billion. The company turned in profits of $1.23 billion, or $1.35 per share, ahead of analyst expectations.
Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer offered guidance for the September quarter for revenues of $8.7 to $8.9 billion, with profits from $1.18 to $1.23 per share.
Apple also sold 2.6 million Macs, a record for the June quarter, and a 4% year-over-year increase when analysts were expecting Mac sales to fall year-over-year. iPod unit sales were down, however, at some 10.2 million units, a decline of 7% compared to Q3 in 2008.
iPhone sales clocked in at 5.2 million units, a massive 626% increase over the year before, but that increase should be tempered by the different product release schedules of the iPhone 3G, which began shipping in Q4 of 2008, and the iPhone 3GS, which began shipping in Q3 of 2009.
*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a small share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.