Apple Inc. beat Wall Street expectations today with its biggest quarterly earnings report ever in spite of a decline in iPhone shipments, sending the company’s shares higher.

Apple reported fiscal first-quarter revenue of $88.3 billion, a rise of 13 percent from a year ago and a record high for the company. Apple also broke a record for its highest earnings per share with $3.89, up 16 percent. Both of these figures beat the average analyst expectations of a $3.86-a-share profit on $87.28 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.

“We’re thrilled to report the biggest quarter in Apple’s history, with broad-based growth that included the highest revenue ever from a new iPhone lineup,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook (pictured) said in a statement. “IPhone X surpassed our expectations and has been our top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in November,” he added, despite indications lately that the company may cut production in response to lower-than-expected demand.

During an earnings call with analysts, Cook noted that iPhone X has continued to be the top-selling iPhone throughout January even though it’s the company’s most expensive smartphone option. Cook said that the goal behind iPhone X was “setting up the next decade,” and he highlighted the popularity of some of iPhone X’s advanced tech features such as Face ID. Cook also noted that he is a “huge, huge believer” in the future of augmented reality on mobile devices, and he said that AR content on iOS is growing rapidly thanks to Apple’s ARKit.

The company has plenty of other plans for the future, such as the $350 billion Apple pledged to pump into the U.S. economy over the next five years. Apple had to pay a record-breaking $38 billion tax to repatriate its foreign cash in preparation for its plans, which include hiring 20,000 new employees and increasing its Advanced Manufacturing Fund to $5 billion.

Apple’s guidance for the current quarter was lower than expected, with forecast revenue of $60 billion to $62 billion versus the analysts’ expectation of $65.73 billion. The company’s strong financials were also marred slightly by disappointing iPhone sales, with 77.32 million units shipped last quarter compared with the 78.29 million shipped during the same time period a year ago. Apple also shipped fewer Macs than last year, but shipments for iPads grew for the third consecutive quarter. And Cook said today that Apple Watch is performing better than ever.

Although iPhone shipments fell, revenue for the devices was actually up, but this did not come as much of a surprise to analysts.

“As I expected, iPhone ASP was up on the new price point of the iPhone X,” said Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy. “Units were down 1 percent, indicating potential share loss or flat share.”

But Moorhead said the 5 percent decline in Macbook sales was unexpected. “This makes the flat Microsoft Surface numbers make more sense given the companies trade potential customers,” he said.

Another surprise, he said, was that China was up 11 percent, which he attributed to the uniqueness of iPhone X. “I believe Apple took share there,” he said.

The comparison to last year’s first quarter may also be misleading. Cook reminded investors today that it covered a 13-week period, whereas the year-ago quarter covered a 14-week period. Cook said growth for Apple actually accelerated on a week-by-week basis from last year.

Apple’s shares dipped briefly in after-hours trading before rebounding to more than 3 percent over their closing price.

Photo: SiliconANGLE