It Never Pays to Doubt: Apple Pops Again

Here's a big surprise. Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), one of the anchors of our Investor Uprising 25 Index, last night delivered spectacular results, and shares were trading up nearly 5% in the pre-market.

The company booked profits of $5.99 billion, or $6.40 per share, on revenues of $24.7 billion for its fiscal 2011 second quarter. That compares to net income of $3.1 billion, or $3.33 per share, on revenues of $13.5 billion for the same quarter last year.

Yes, that's right: A company with a market capitalization of $315 billion nearly doubled its profits and increased revenues by 83 percent.

The addition of the iPhone to Verizon Inc. (NYSE: VZ) expanded the channel, with iPhone sales growing 126 percent year-over-year. Verizon sold 2 million iPhones in the quarter.

But that's not the main thing: They're selling more iPhones in China, with sales there up 250%.

Apple sold 4.7 million iPads, down from 7.3 million in the December quarter. Executives said that supply issues affected output, but that there is a building backlog and those supply constraints are now fixed.

OK. What's going to stop Apple? I have no idea. Maybe an asteroid?

The funny thing is that there have been many persistant doubters on Apple's rise over the last couple of years. The main criticism of the stock appears to be that Apple is just getting too big. But its growth markets, iPhone and iPad, seem to be doing just fine. Apple is now the largest handset vendor in the world, according to Strategy Analytics.

The best news is that Apple's still not an expensive stock by many metrics. In fact, you could call it cheap, which is why it was added to our IU25. Apple is trading at a recent 12-times analysts' forward earnings estimates for 2011, which stand at $23.05 per share, according to Reuters.

After the latest quarter, analysts may have to raise estimates again, with the company earning $6.44 per share and annual estimates sitting at $23. Those estimates have been moving up for the last couple of months. Watch the news today to see if more analysts bump up estimates on Apple's bullish activity.