Apple results blow past Wall Street targets

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc posted quarterly results that blew past Wall Street expectations on the back of record iPhone sales, sending its shares up 6 percent to an all-time high.

APPLE (AAPL.NQ) which typically offers very conservative financial forecasts, also gave a current-quarter revenue outlook that surpassed Wall Street's forecasts.

"It's unbelievable. They totally crushed the quarter. It seems really strong across the board," said Kaufman Bros' Shaw Wu. "You have to ask whether Christmas has come again for Apple in March."

The company on Tuesday reported net income of $3.07 billion, or $3.33 a share, in the fiscal second quarter ended March 27, up from $1.62 billion, or $1.79 a share, in the year-ago period.

Analysts were expecting a profit of $2.45 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose nearly 50 percent to $13.5 billion, well above Wall Street's estimate of $12.04 billion.

For the current quarter, Apple forecast earnings $2.28 to $2.39 a share on revenue of $13 billion to $13.4 billion.

Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple touched an all-time high of $251.14 on Friday, buoyed by pre-earnings optimism and hopes that the much-touted iPad tablet computer would carve out a new market for consumer electronics.

On Tuesday, the stock closed at $244.59 on Nasdaq and was halted in after-hours trading. They resumed trading shortly after and jumped rapidly to $264.00.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway; Editing by Richard Chang)