Van de CNBC website
Apple surpassed quarterly earnings expectations again with the help of strong sales of its iPhone, but iPad sales and margins disappointed, and its shares sank.
The company said it earned $4.31 billion, or $4.64 a share, in its fiscal fourth quarter, against $1.82 a share last year.
Revenue for the quarter was reported at $20.34 billion, versus $9.87 billion last year.
Equity analysts who follow Apple expected the company to turn in a profit of $4.08 a share on sales of $18.90 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
Apple shares dropped 7 percent in late trading after initially being halted. Get after-hours quotes for Apple here.
The stock finished the regular Nasdaq session more than 1 percent higher.
Sales of Apple's popular iPhone jumped 91 percent to 14.1 million units in the quarter. The company sold 3.89 million Macs, an increase of 27 percent. Apple sold 9.05 million iPods, marking a decline of 11 percent year over year. The company 4.19 million iPads in the quarter.
"Iphones continue to steal the show. Well over a million units of upside relative to whisper," said Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall.
"Ipad, a little bit disappointing there. Street was expecting closer to 5 million units," he said. "The problem is supply, they can't make enough of them. iPad will shine in the December quarter. I believe it will be the holiday gift of choice."