Apple Reports Record December Quarter Earnings. Again.

Gold Man Sacks and $AAPLApple Inc. turned in another record quarter Tuesday, with December quarter revenues of $75.9 billion and record earnings of $18.4 billion, or earnings per share of $3.28. The company just edged out revenues of $74.6 billion from the year ago quarter—missing consensus estimates in the process—but solidly beat year-ago EPS of $3.06. Gross margins came in at 40.1 percent.

Consensus estimates were $76.6 billion in revenue and $3.23 EPS.

"Our team delivered Apple's biggest quarter ever, thanks to the world's most innovative products and all-time record sales of iPhone, Apple Watch and Apple TV," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "The growth of our Services business accelerated during the quarter to produce record results, and our installed base recently crossed a major milestone of one billion active devices."

Apple didn't specify any unit sales in its earnings press release, but it did provide guidance of revenues between $50 and $53 billion, and gross margins between 39 and 39.5 percent.

$AAPL ended the trading today at $99.99, a gain of 0.55 (+0.55 percent), on moderate volume of 63.2 million shares trading hands. Immediate after-hours trading was higher, with $AAPL trading at $100.26, a gain of $0.270 (+0.27 percent).

Apple is hosting its quarterly conference call with analysts Tuesday (today) at 5:00 PM EST, and The Mac Observer will provide extensive coverage throughout the day.

*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a tiny, almost insignificant share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.