The least surprising news of the day has got to be that Apple Inc. (AAPL) beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate…again. This is something that the PC staple has been doing for years now, and is nowhere near as exciting a story as the top secret iPhone that was left at a bar last week. But we’ll talk about it anyway.

In what the company called its “best non-holiday quarter ever,” Apple announced earnings per share of $3.33, which easily surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.43. Revenue of $13.5 billion soared from the previous year’s $9.08 billion (and that’s without any help from the iPad).

Also during the quarter:

  • Sales of iPhones surged 131% to 8.75 million units
  • Sales of Macintosh® computers were up 33% to 2.94 million units
  • Sales of iPods were down 1% to 10.89 million units

As far as Apple’s unapologetically conservative guidance is concerned, the company expects earnings per share between $2.28 and $2.39 for the fiscal third quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter is at $2.65. Revenue is expected at $13 billion to $13.4 billion.

In after hours trading, Apple shares were at a modest gain.

This report fits with our recommendation on the company, which was highlighted earlier today in our Apple Earnings Preview. We see strong fundamentals in Apple and long-term growth potential. We also expect the iPad to help the company report stronger results in fiscal 2010.

Heading into the quarterly report, a few analysts already were revising their estimates higher for this fiscal year and next. There were 8 upward revisions for each period in the past 7 days; of course that’s not even a 1% advance in the consensus since the well-represented Apple has 41 total estimates for this year and 39 for next.

However, the overall trajectory for earnings estimates is upward, and the Zacks Consensus Estimate for this fiscal year of $11.95 and for next fiscal year of 13.99 is up 2.5% and 4%, respectively, in a month. There’s been a lot more agreement among analyst for the period, with 25 upward revisions for fiscal 2010 and 23 upward revisions for fiscal 2011. There were no downward revisions for either period.

Our in-depth analysis of Apple’s fiscal second quarter will be posted before the opening bell Wednesday.
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