Apple Third

Apple reported third-quarter sales and profit that topped analysts' estimates, sending the shares up more than 4 percent in extended trading.

Sales rose to $35.3 billion from $35 billion in the quarter ended in June, Cupertino, California-based Apple said in a statement today. Profit was $7.47 a share, down from $9.32 a year ago. Analysts were expecting sales of $35.01 billion and profit of $7.32.

Gross margin, a key measure of profitability, narrowed to 36.9 percent from 42.8 percent, as analysts expected. Apple had forecast gross margin of between 36 and 37 percent.

For the fourth quarter, which ends in September, Apple said it expects sales of $34 billion to $37 billion and a gross margin between 36 and 37 percent. Analysts were looking for sales of $37.1 billion.

Apple sold 31.2 million iPhones, exceeding analysts' expectations. Toni Sacconaghi of Sanford C. Bernstein was looking for iPhone sales of 25.5 million units, while analysts on average he said were looking at shipments between 25 and 26 million.

For the iPad, Apple said it sold 14.6 million. That was below analysts' expectations.

"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," Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, said in the 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."

Apple shares rose in late trading. They rose 4.8 percent, or $20.19, to $439.18 at 2:42 p.m. California time. They had earlier closed down $7.33, or 1.7 percent, to $418.98 in regular Nasdaq trading as investors awaited the results.

The company will host a conference call to discuss earnings results at 2 p.m. California time. You can listen to it over the Web (assuming you have Apple's Quicktime player installed) here. I'll also be live-blogging the call. Refresh this page to see updates.