Investors liked what they heard from Apple and eBay yesterday regarding their latest quarterly financial results.

Apple, which will have to restate results to account for stock-option grants (related to an industry-wide backdating scandal), reported quarterly profit of $546 million, or 62 cents a share, up 27 percent from $430 million, or 50 cents a share, a year ago, reports the Mercury News. Revenue was up 32 percent, to $4.84 billion, exceeding analysts' expectations of $4.66 billion.

eBay, meanwhile, said quarterly profit was up 10 percent from a year ago, boosted by growth in its PayPal online payment service. Its net income was $280.9 million, or 20 cents a share, up from $255 million, or 18 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue grew 31 percent, to $1.45 billion, exceeding analysts' expectations of $1.43 billion.

eBay also raised its outlook for all of 2006, saying it expects earnings of $1.01 to $1.02 a share on $5.87 billion to $5.93 billion of revenue. Apple's guidance for the next quarter, meanwhile, fell short of Wall Street expectations, writes paidContent.

Apple now expects revenue of between $6 billion and $6.2 billion, with earnings of 70-73 cents per share, lower than the revenue of $6.45 billion and earnings of 77 cents per share analysts were expecting.

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