Apple Beats Expectations, Shares Rising After Hours (AAPL)

Apple AAPL reported on Tuesday afternoon that its third-quarter net income was $3.253 billion or $3.51 per share, compared to $1.828 billion or $2.01 per share in last year's corresponding quarter. Wall Street analysts had anticipated the company would report EPS of $3.11. Revenue was $15.70 billion versus $9.734 billion in the year ago period. This came in ahead of analysts' expectations of $14.75 billion. Mac sales were particularly strong, up 33% to 3.47 million. Apple (AAPL) sold 8.4 million iPhones, which was at the high end of the expected range. iPod sales declined 8% to 9.41 million. The company sold 3.27 million iPads. "It was a phenomenal quarter that exceeded our expectations all around, including the most successful product launch in Apple's history with iPhone 4," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "iPad is off to a terrific start, more people are buying Macs than ever before, and we have amazing new products still to come this year." "We're really pleased to have generated over $4 billion of cash during the quarter," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue of about $18 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $3.44"