Apple Inc. surprised Wall Street today by delivering better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter results despite seeing its overall growth slow as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to the closure of many of its retail stores around the world.

Officials declined to offer any guidance for the third quarter, however, and that may have contributed to its stock falling more than 2% in after-hours trading.

The iPhone maker reported a net profit of $11.2 billion, or $2.55 per share, up 4% from a year ago, on revenue of $58.3 billion, up 1% from the same quarter last year. Wall Street had expected Apple to report a profit of just $2.26 per share on revenue of $54.54 billion.

“Amid the most challenging global environment in which we’ve ever operated our business we’re proud to say that Apple grew during the quarter,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook (pictured) said during a conference call with analysts.

Apple no longer publishes unit numbers on its product shipments but said revenue from iPhone sales came to $28.96 billion, down from $31.05 billion in the year-ago period.

Apple’s other businesses were also hit. Revenue from Mac sales came to $5.35 billion, down from $5.51 billion, while the Wearables, Home and Accessories unit pulled in another $6.28 billion, slightly down from the $6.52 billion it made a year ago. On the other hand, Services revenue hit a record high at $13.35 billion.

The performance of those smaller business units highlights the value of the “multiphase strategy” that Cook and his management team have developed over the past few quarters, said Pund-IT Inc. analyst Charles King.

“Instead of continuing as the one-trick pony model that many criticized, Apple has developed substantial new businesses around services and wearables,” King said. “The wisdom of that approach bore fruit this quarter and it also looks like the company may have gotten a boost in ‘working from home’ iPad sales too.”

The challenge for Apple now is to maintain the growth of its services and wearables segments, but that won’t be easy as the next quarter is likely to be more challenging, Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller told SiliconANGLE.

“All of Apple’s major markets begin the current three-month period with ‘shelter in place’ policies, and there will likely be even more business restrictions in this quarter than the last,” Mueller said.

The company hit its targets after revising its second-quarter guidance in February because of the coronavirus pandemic hurting its supply chains in China. The company originally forecast second-quarter revenue of between $63 billion and $67 billion. In the first quarter, its revenue hit $92 billion.

Officials said the company will continue to buy back its stock amid the pandemic. It has authorized an increase of its $50 billion share buyback program, as well as a dividend of 82 cents per share. The company had spent $67.1 billion on repurchasing shares and $14.1 billion on dividends in 2019.

Apple’s cash hoard now stands at $192.8 billion, down from the $207.1 billion it reported at the end of the first quarter.

Apple didn’t provide any guidance for the next quarter, but Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said in a conference call that he expects iPhone sales will continue to suffer. On the plus side, he said the company’s new video streaming service Apple+ was doing well as more people watch TV content while under lockdown. Sales of iPads and Macs are also likely to get a boost, he said.

“On iPhone and Wearables, we expect a year-over-year revenue performance to worsen in the June quarter, relative to the March quarter,” Maestri said. “On iPad and Mac, we expect the year-over-year revenue performance to improve in the June quarter.”

Photo: Abdulkarim Sarmini/Flickr