Overseas sales were particularly strong. Revenue in greater China was up 71% year over year. Mac sales in China were up 31%.
Apple also announced an increase in its capital return program to $200 billion through March 2017, mostly for repurchase of Apple shares. It increased dividends more modestly, to 52 cents per share from 47 cents.
“We are thrilled by the continued strength of iPhone, Mac and the App Store, which drove our best March quarter results ever,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re seeing a higher rate of people switching to iPhone than we’ve experienced in previous cycles, and we’re off to an exciting start to the June quarter with the launch of Apple Watch.” See Apple Reports Record Second Quarter Results.
Apple’s shares, having closed Monday at $132.65, up 1.82%, immediately rose another 2.7% in after-hours trading before settling at $135.93. If that price holds Tuesday morning it will mark a new all-time high for Apple.
By the numbers:
— Revenue: $58.01 billion, up 27%
— EPS: $2.33 per share, up 40.4%
— iPhone: 61.17 million, up 39.9%
— iPad: 12.623 million, down 22.8%
— Mac: 4.563 million, up 10.3%
— Services: $4.996 billion, up 9%
— Other products: $1.689 billion, -10.15%
— Revenue guidance: $46 to $48 billion
— Gross margin guidance: 38.5% to 39.5%
— Cash and securities: $193.5 billion, up $15.6 billion from Q1
To listen in on the conference call with analysts, click here: Apple Financial Results
Tim Cook’s introductory remarks included some news:
- The new $200 billion capital return program through March 2017, stealing some of CFO Luca Maestri’s thunder. The old program called for returning $130 billion by the end of 2015.
- The more than 3,500 apps are already available for the Apple Watch
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In response to a question about the Apple Watch he acknowledged that Apple was caught somewhat surprised by customer preferences among the 38 models.”We are learning quickly,” he said. “In some cases we called that well. In some cases we made adjustments.”
By the end of June Cook expects Apple will have sufficient supply to begin expanding the list of countries where the device is sold. No word on when it might be available for sale in Apple’s own stores.
With regard to the iPhone, Cook said about 20% of the installed iPhone base has upgraded to the 6 or 6 Plus.
Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple (AAPL) coverage at fortune.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.