Apple beat expectations by reporting Monday that it earned $1.42 per share in its fiscal fourth quarter on revenue of $42 billion.
Wall Street analysts were expecting Apple to earn $1.30 a share on $40 billion revenue.
The company recorded $8.5 billion in profit, a record for the quarter.
The company sold 39.27 million iPhones, up 16 percent quarter over quarter, while analysts predicted about 38 million.
It was with the iPad, where sales dropped to 12.3 million from 14.1 million a year ago.
While sales were expected to slow, some analysts had predicted Apple would sell something closer to 13 million units in the quarter.
The company's iTunes segment reported sales of $4.6 billion, up from $4.3 billion in the same quarter a year ago.
On a conference call with analysts Monday, CEO Tim Cook boasted that iTunes revenue alone was more than the revenue that two-thirds of the companies making up the Fortune 500 have reported.
Apple sold 2.6 billion iPods, down from 3.5 billion a year ago, though the fall was not unexpected.
The earnings come the same day the giant consumer electronics and new-media company launched its newest product, Apple Pay, which allows users to make purchases on their iPhone 6 or 6 Plus via a fingerprint reader.
Early businesses signing onto Apple Pay include Starbucks, Disney Store, Uber, Lyft, StubHub, McDonald's and, of course, Apple Store.
On Monday's conference call, Cook said that Apple Pay was an "incredible" service that does not violate the privacy of its users.
Apple executives also said a new reporting category called "products" has been created and it will include hardware sales from its Beats acquisition, along with sales of Apple TV, iPod and the new Apple Watch.
Shares of Apple were up 2 percent to $99.76 during the regular session Monday, and rose another 1.5 percent after the closing bell.
