Apple Inc (AAPL)

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Apple Inc. reported a 24% jump in earnings for its fourth fiscal quarter on Thursday afternoon, though the results fell short of investors' expectations given a slowdown of iPhone sales and lower-than-expected iPad shipments. For the quarter ended Sept. 29, Apple AAPL -1.18% reported net income of $8.2 billion, or $8.67 per share, compared with net income of $6.6 billion, or $7.05 per share, for the same period last year. Revenue jumped 27% to $36 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $8.75 on revenue of $35.8 billion for the quarter, according to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters. For the December period, Apple projected earnings per share of $11.75 with revenue of $52 billion. Analysts had been expecting earnings of $15.41 per share on revenue of $55 billion for the period.