Apple (AAPL) Watch to Ship to More Countries in June After Strong Demand Outstrips Supply

— -- Apple stock (NASDAQ: AAPL) hit an all-time high after Apple's second full earnings period since the iPhone 6 launch fueled the company's "best March quarter results ever."

But sales of iPads disappointed investors.

About the Apple Watch, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, "Right now, demand is greater than supply and we're working hard to remedy that." Cook said the company "made progress over the last week or so" and delivered more Apple Watches to customers over the weekend "than we originally anticipated."

"It is a new product, and as with any new product you take time to fully ramp," Cook said. "Having said that, I think we're in a good position. ... Sometime in late June, we anticipate to be in a position when we can sell the Apple Watch in additional countries."

"We’re learning customer preferences," Cook said about the Apple Watch, adding that there's a "much bigger breadth of possibility here than in our other products."

The company said it will return $200 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks over the next two years "to reflect strong confidence in what lies ahead for Apple," Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the company earnings conference call today.

Apple's cash pile is a whopping $194 billion after it announced revenue of $58 billion from January to March of this year and net profit of $13.6 billion. That's a jump from the same quarter a year ago: $45.6 billion in revenue and net profit of $10.2 billion last year. The company attributed "all-time record performance" of its App Store, with a record quarter of customer App Store purchases, plus sales of the iPhone and Mac.

Apple's revenue and profit beat expectations by Wall Street analysts. Apple stock was trading at $132.65, up nearly 2 percent at the close of trading in New York. Its stock was trading around $134.66, up more than 1 percent.

International sales accounted for 69 percent of Apple's revenue this quarter, and Cook said during the earnings conference call that the success of the iPhone was especially strong in emerging markets. The company sold 61.2 million iPhones, 12.6 million iPads and 4.6 million Macs in the three-month period.

"We’re making many strategic investments in Apple’s future," Cook said during the conference call, noting Apple's "biggest data centers in the world" in Ireland and Denmark.

The quarter's performance wasn't the record-breaking $18 billion it made in profits during its first quarter of this year and iPad sales fell 23 percent from last year, but Cook was still smitten.

“We are thrilled by the continued strength of iPhone, Mac and the App Store, which drove our best March quarter results ever,” Cook said in a statement. "We’re seeing a higher rate of people switching to iPhone than we’ve experienced in previous cycles, and we’re off to an exciting start to the June quarter with the launch of Apple Watch."