Facebook’s initial public offering, plagued by trading errors and a 16 percent drop in the share price, will push more individual investors out of a stock market they already distrust after the financial crisis.NEW YORK – After uncharacteristically tepid sales in the July-to-September quarter, Apple came back with a vengeance in last three months of 2011, exceeding analyst estimates and setting new records.
Apple Inc. on Tuesday said it sold 37 million iPhones in the quarter, double the figure of the previous quarter and more than twice as many as it sold in last year’s holiday quarter.
The result may make Apple the world’s largest maker of smartphones. Samsung Electronics, which held that position for most of last year, has said it expects to report shipping about 35 million smartphones in the quarter.
October saw the launch of the iPhone 4S and the addition of Sprint Nextel Corp. as an iPhone carrier in the U.S.
Apple said net income in the fiscal first quarter was $13.06 billion, or $13.87 a share. That was up 118 percent from $6 billion, or $6.43 a share, a year ago.
Revenue was $46.33 billion, up 73 percent from a year ago. Analysts were expecting $38.9 billion.
The Cupertino, Calif., company shipped 15.4 million iPads in the quarter, again more than doubling sales over the same quarter last year.
Apple shares rose $33.03, or 7.9 percent, to $453.53 in extended trading Tuesday.
Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said he expects earnings of $8.50 a share in the current quarter and sales of $32.5 billion.
Apple ended the quarter with a cash balance of a staggering $97.6 billion. Apple executives have said the cash hoard gives the company flexibility to make acquisitions and long-term supply deals.
