Apple's stock soars $12 after hours thanks to better than expected Q2 earnings

Thanks to new demand from Verizon customers for the Apple iPhone 4, the Cupertino based company nearly doubled earnings in the second quarter from a year earlier. Earnings rose in the period to $5.99billion, or $6.40 a share, from $3.07 billion, or $3.33, a yearearlier. That compares with the $5.39 figure expected by analysts and is why Apple's common stock rose over $12 a share in after hours trading on NASDAQ. Revenue rose a strong 83% to $24.7 billion, beating the $23.4 billion predicted by analysts.

In the three month period, Apple sold 18.7 million iPhones, which included the units sold by Verizon. Big Red started selling the handset on February 10th. An average of 13 analysts estimates added up to expectations that Apple would sell 16.3 million units of its touchscreen phone during Q2.

Not everything Apple did was golden. While the pace of iPhone sales were the strongest in 2 years, sales of the Apple iPad came in below the expectations that 6.1 million units would be sold. The actual figure was 4.69 million. Apple also predicted that the current quarter would show lower profits than analysts were looking for. The company put guidance for Q3 at $5.03 a share with $23 billion in revenue versus Wall Street's estimate that Apple will report profits of $5.25 a share on $23.8 billion in sales.

Besides investors voting with their money after the release of the earnings, analysts also weighed in with positive comments. Mark Moskowitz, an analystat JPMorgan Chase & Co. said,  "This will restore in investors’ minds that Apple is themagical growth story in tech. They really are amazing."

After the numbers were released, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said, "We will continue to innovate on all fronts throughout theremainder of the year."

source: Bloomberg