Apple’s Mixed Results Send Some Investors Running

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) closed the regular session up 1.83 percent on Wednesday before its first-quarter release, to $514.01 per share. Ahead of the report, analysts were looking for $13.44 per share, a number that has been revised up a lot in the past few weeks. Keep in mind that while analysts have historically undershot earnings, they overshot for the past two quarters. Apple’s own guidance was diluted earnings per share “of about $11.75,” according to its fourth-quarter report.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2013, Apple reported net profit of $13.81 per diluted share, a beat. However, revenue of $54.5 billion came in below expectations of $54.7 billion or higher. This revenue was fueled by all-time quarterly records for iPhone and iPad sales.

Apple is forecasting revenue between $41 and $43 billion for the second quarter, but did not provide guidance for earnings. The company’s gross margin, which fell 0.3 points year over year last quarter to 40.0 percent, fell to 38.6 percent for the first quarter. This compares to margins of  44.7 percent for the same period a year ago…