Apple earnings beat with $35.3 billion in ...

Company's third quarter results come in slightly stronger than expected, fueled by the iPhone, but iPad sales were far below what Wall St. expected.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Apple beat expectations on Tuesday with better than expected earnings, buoyed by strong iPhone sales.

Apple reported earnings of $6.9 billion, or $7.47 per share on $35.3 billion in sales. Wall Street was expecting Apple to post earnings of $7.32 per share on sales of $35 billion.

Apple said it sold 31.2 million iPhones, 14.6 million iPads, 3.8 million Macs, and 4.5 million iPods during the quarter. Wall Street was expecting Apple to have sold around 26 million iPhones, 17 million iPads, 4 million Macs, and around 6.8 million iPods, making the iPhone sales a standout.

"We are especially proud of our record June quarter iPhone sales of over 31 million and the strong growth in revenue from iTunes, Software and Services," Apple CEO Tim Cook, said in a statement. "We are really excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, and we are laser-focused and working hard on some amazing new products that we will introduce in the fall and across 2014."

Looking ahead, the company said it expects to sales between $34 billion to $37 billion, with a margin between 36 and 37 percent. That's below the sales of $37.55 billion and in line with the 36.8 percent gross margin Wall St. analysts polled by Thomson First Call had expected ahead of Apple's numbers.

The quarter continued a year-over-year profit decline, something Apple reported for the first time in a decade in its previous quarter. Before that, the last time Apple posted a decline was the very beginning of 2003, and the company was hit by both the economic downturn and a restructuring charge.

Despite that, shares popped in after-hours trading following the news, jumping $17.81, or 4.25 percent to $436.80.

As usual, much of the expectation for Apple's performance rested on sales of the iPhone, which made up more than half of the company's overall revenues in the past two quarters. The product, along with the iPad, has served as a chief money maker, and a catalyst to huge growth.

Apple is hosting a call with financial analysts at 2 p.m. PT ( listen here), which typically provides a number of insights into company, including stats that aren't initially reported. We'll add any important details from that call to this post.