Apple has enjoyed a strong first quarter of the year, with the electronics giant planning to buy stock back from shareholders while increasing its quarterly dividend by 8%.
The firm enjoyed first-quarter sales of $45.6bn (£27.2bn), up about 5% year-on-year and a $10.2bn (£6.1bn) profit.
By comparison, rival Samsung expects to make an operating profit of $7.9bn for the January-to-March quarter, down 4% from the same period last year.
Strong iPhone sales surprised analysts, who had been expecting a sharper decline in post-holiday buying. The sales boost was helped by growing access to the world’s biggest mobile market, China.
Apple said it sold 44 million iPhones between January and March – a rise of 17% on the first three months of 2013.
iPhones remain the company’s most popular product, contributing to more than half of its revenue – but sales decreased by 14% from last quarter, as users await new models.
However, they were up 17% compared to the same period earlier.
Menawhile the iPad has underperformed – selling 16 million iPads and four million Macs in the same period but iPod sales continued to slump, down more than 50% on the start of last year.
The company’s CEO, Tim Cook, promised “new products and services that only Apple could bring to the market”.
First stock split for 9 years
Apple also said it would split its stock for the first time in nine years.
The moves are meant to appease investors as the firm reports slowing revenue growth.
Shares in the firm surged more than 7% in after-hours trading, as investors also welcomed news of the seven-for-one split, which is set to take effect in June.
“We’re very proud of our quarterly results, especially our strong iPhone sales and record revenue from services,” said chief executive Tim Cook in a statement.
On a conference call to discuss earnings, Mr Cook added that it was Apple’s biggest non-holiday quarter ever.
He said that Apple has acquired 24 companies in the last 18 months in order to expand its research and development into new features and products.
Apple has faced stiff competition from rival Samsung, which sells cheaper smartphones that mostly run Google’s Android operating system.
Read the Apple statement here