Apple Inc. (AAPL) took dual steps to reassure investors concerned with its growth prospects, reporting a surge in iPhone sales and giving its shareholder payout program a $30 billion boost.

The world’s most valuable company said fiscal second-quarter profit grew 7 percent to $10.2 billion and sales rose 4.7 percent to $45.6 billion after making the iPhone available throughChina’s largest wireless carrier, China Mobile Ltd. (941), earlier this year. IPhone sales were 43.7 million, topping analysts’ estimates of 37.7 million, the company said in a statement today.

Apple said it will also increase its repurchase authorization to $90 billion from $60 billion and announced a seven-for-one stock split. In addition, the company boosted its dividend. Apple said it plans to take on debt to pay for the added stock buyback and dividend plans.

David Fuller's view

The world’s biggest company in terms stock market valuations certainly played a leading role in reviving the appeal of ‘old tech’ relative to ‘new tech’, which has seen its momentum bubble burst this year.  Apple (daily & weekly) was down nearly $7 today but will soar on Thursday because in after hours trading, following the company’s statement, it reached $566 for a gain of nearly 6.5%.  

This is a story of solid results and especially aggressive financial engineering which Carl Icahn had been pushing for.  There is a good chance that investors will now drive other tech giants, currently sitting on cash mountains, higher over the near term on hopes that they will following Apple’s financial strategy.