Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) reported its 1Q FY 2012 Earnings following the stock market closing bell on Tuesday. The results far outpaced the expectations of even the most seasoned Wall Street analysts, with the tech company reporting a record quarterly profit of $13.06 billion on revenue of $46.33 billion.

iPad and iPhone Sales

Apple saw its quarterly sales of iPads and iPhones double during the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2012. The company sold more than 37 million iPhones – a sales increase of 128% – and 15.43 million iPads, which is 111% more than a year ago. A total of 5.2 million Macs were sold during 1Q FY 2012 (a 26% boost from 1Q 2011) and the company experienced an overall decline in iPod sales, down to 15.4 million.

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook stated Tuesday, “We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs. Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.”

Shares Reach All-Time High

In early morning trading Wednesday, shares for Apple Inc. reached an all-time intraday high of $454.45 (see chart below) before slightly retreating to $447.67 by 10:30am Eastern Time. The company reported diluted Earnings Per Share of $13.87, which easily beat analysts estimates of around $11 EPS. Apple currently has a Market Capitalization of $418.83 billion with a Price To Earnings Ratio of 12.80.

Apple Inc.’s CFO Peter Oppenheimer added Tuesday, We are very happy to have generated over $17.5 billion in cash flow from operations during the December quarter. Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2012, which will span 13 weeks, we expect revenue of about $32.5 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $8.50.”

Not surprisingly, the NASDAQ Composite index had also risen Wednesday following the opening bell; gaining as much as a full percentage point before sliding in conjunction with the Apple Inc. share price.

iPad 3 Launch

Although Apple’s earnings are more than impressive, their mobile communication competitors (mainly Google and Research in Motion) may be even more intimidated of the company’s 2012 product lineup, includes the iPad 3 tablet computer scheduled to be released in March. Consumer interest of the iPad 3 is so great that our recent Apple iPad 3 Preview article is approaching 10,000 unique views in its second week since being published.

The iPad 3 will feature LTE technology, which will offer customers lightning-fast mobile data connections, streaming video, and a number of new mobile internet applications.

Analyst Reactions

Michael Obuchowski, CIO of First Empire Asset Management, was quoted in a Bloomberg.com article Tuesday stating, “Those numbers are just unimaginable. It’s still an extremely well-managed company and they are showing that the product pipeline is sufficient even now to generate growth rates that are unrivaled.”

Ben Verwaayen, CEO of Alcatel- Lucent agreed, telling Bloomberg, ““Look at the Apple numbers, they were stunning. It shows that even in a time of difficult circumstances, if you have the right product and the right focus, you can make a difference.” Verwaayen’s comments were made during an interview with Maryam Nemazee on Bloomberg Television’s Countdown show.

Apple Inc. and Your IRA

If you have Apple Inc. in your IRA, you’ve turned a healthy profit over the last few years. Since 2003, the stock has increased in value well over 2,000 percent and could be poised for another market value boost if its sales and profit numbers continue to come in at such remarkable levels.

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