Better yet, the company's gross profit margin improved to 27.4 percent from 25.7 percent. The improvement was attributed to falling prices for computer components. Such strong results are driving Apple's stock higher. It has risen about 55 percent in the past three months. Not everyone views Apple's strong third-quarter results as irrefutable evidence of a turnaround.
Naysayers still see signs of trouble.
They point, for example, to Apple's third-quarter revenue. But, for Apple, those record sales were not translating into profit. The company was losing hundreds of millions of dollars. So far, it looks like a winning strategy.