Apple shares soar after posting biggest profits in history
Shares in Apple rose more than 6pc after the company posted a record-breaking set of quarterly results, with sales of the iPhone 6 growing well ahead of expectations.
The technology giant said that sales rose 29.5pc in the final three months of 2014 to $74.6bn (£48bn), easily beating Wall Street predictions that sales would reach $67.7bn.
The surge in sales drove the company’s net income up from $13.1bn to $18bn in the quarter, the biggest ever quarterly profit reported by a company.
Shares in Apple rose 6.88, or 6.3pc, to $116.02 on Wall Street, valuing the company at $674bn.
Tim Cook, chief executive, also confirmed that the highly-anticipated Apple Watch will go on sale from April, slightly later than the expected March launch date.
Apple said it sold a record 74.5m iPhones during the quarter – the equivalent of 34,000 per hour – significantly ahead of forecasts that it would sell 65m.
Mr Cook said it had been an “incredible quarter”. He stated: “We’d like to thank our customers for an incredible quarter, which saw demand for Apple products soar to an all-time high.
“Our revenue grew 30pc over last year to $74.bn, and the execution by our teams to achieve these results was simply phenomenal.”
However, Luca Maestri, the chief financial officer, said that iPhone sales in China did not overtake those in the US, despite predictions by analysts that they would.
