Apple turned in another powerhouse quarter, meeting analyst estimates for both profit and revenue and confidently projecting that it will have a strong holiday quarter, leaving investors cautiously optimistic that the firm can keep growing.

Analysts forecast Apple would have revenue of $51 billion and sell roughly 48 million iPhones – figures that were boosted partly because Apple included China in its first wave of launches for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Apple reported a quarterly profit of $11.1 billion on $51.5 billion in revenue, and met those iPhone sale projections dead-on.

Analysts had expressed some caution over future iPhone sales, and carefully eyed Apple’s projections for the next quarter. As analyst Colin Gillis said in a note ahead of earnings, a strong debut in the fall could lead to weaker sales over the traditionally blockbuster December quarter. In other words, there was some worry that people buying iPhones right now were probably not going to buy them over the holidays.

Apple is heavily reliant on the iPhone, which made up 63 percent of its revenue in the quarter and even more of its profit. Even a slight sign of weakness in smartphone sales is unwelcome news for its investors.

The company – known for conservative guidance – seemed to put some of those fears to rest with a strong projection for the December quarter, saying that it expects revenues between $75.5 billion and $77.5 billion. That would be up from the $74.6 billion Apple earned over the holiday quarter in 2014.

Yet Apple’s guidance, while confident, still sat in the lower end of analyst projections for the holidays. Shares were up around 2 percent immediately after the report was made public, but soon settled back down near Apple’s closing price of $114.55.