05:19 PM EDT, 05/02/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Apple ( AAPL ) late Thursday reported a surprise increase in fiscal second-quarter earnings despite a slowdown in iPhone sales while the technology giant announced additional stock repurchase authorization of up to $110 billion.

Per-share earnings rose to $1.53 for the quarter ended March 30 from $1.52 a year earlier, compared with the GAAP consensus on Capital IQ for the metric to fall to $1.51. Net sales fell 4% to $90.75 billion, but came in ahead of Wall Street's $90.45 billion view.

Shares were up 7.5% in after-hours trading Thursday.

"Our active installed base of devices has reached a new all-time high across all products and all geographic segments, and our business performance drove a new EPS record for the March quarter," Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said in a statement.

Sales for the company's iPhone product declined to $45.96 billion from $51.33 billion in the 2023 quarter. IPad revenue fell to $5.56 billion from $6.67 billion while Mac reported a gain to $7.45 billion from $7.17 billion.

Overall product sales slid to $66.89 billion from $73.93 billion, while services increased to $23.87 billion -- a new record -- from $20.91 billion. Sales declined in China, Japan and the Americas.

The company's additional $110 billion buyback plan reflects "confidence in Apple's ( AAPL ) future and the value we see in our stock," Maestri said.

Apple ( AAPL ) raised its quarterly cash dividend by 4% to $0.25 per share, payable May 16 to shareholders of record on May 13.

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