Apple shares price open at record high amid strong profit and boost in iPhone sales
APPLE shares price has sailed to record highs after a major boost in the sale of iPhones.
Apple shares price has reached record highs
The stock climbed above its intraday record high to $159.10 (£120.34) after the company reported better-than-expected iPhone sales, revenue and earnings per share.
Apple said quarterly revenues grew by 7 per cent year-on-year to $45.4bn (£34.4bn).
The news sent its stock surging more than 5 per cent in after-hours trade.
CEO Tim Cook told CNBC: "If you look at the products, we sold 41 million iPhones, but frankly it's better than that because we also reduced channel inventories by 3.3 million.
Apple iPhone has seen its sales rocket
If you look at the products, we sold 41 million iPhones, but frankly it's better than that because we also reduced channel inventories by 3.3 million
"If you look across the world, we had several markets in Asia, in Latin America, and the Middle East which grew more than 25 per cent year on year. If you look at iPhone 7 in the iPhone 7 Plus, we grew strong double-digit year on year compared to the 6S plus a year ago.
"So iPhone was terrific."
He said the company is excited about advances in iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS.
The stock price move was expected to help drive the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the 22,000 mark on Wednesday.
Apple shares price have increased beyond expert expectation
Technology giant Apple said newer lines of business such as Apple Pay, the App store and Apple music helped the boost.
Apple Pay now accounts for almost 90 per cent of mobile payment transactions around the world
It comes after the Californian company said it hit a milestone of 1.2 billion iPhones sold.
The April-June quarter is traditionally a soft one for Apple as the market waits for the September launch of new iPhone models.
Apple is expected to release new products next month
But Tuesday’s results show that iPhone buyers may be less inclined than they once were to delay purchases until a new model is out.
The iPad product lines also showed unexpected strength, service revenue continues to grow at a healthy clip, and even the much-maligned Apple Watch showed a 50 per cent sales increase.
Geoff Blaber from CCS Insight described the success as "the shining light".
He said: "Not only is $7.3bn in revenue hugely significant in its own right, it underlines the ecosystem advantage it has over its competitors outside of China."