Apple's Q1-14 earnings are in top 10 of all time

According to information provided by Philip Elmer-DeWitt for Fortune, in the first quarter of 2014 Apple earned $13.1 billion. It is the forth best result of all time. In fact, Apple occupies half of the top-10 list, being the only tech company.

It was Apple's fifth $10-billion-plus quarter in three years. Only oil and gas companies make that kind of money, and they haven't seen $10 billion quarter since 2011. Why did the stock drop 8% Tuesday? I suspect part of the the answer can be found in the geometry of those five red bars. Apple is reporting record earnings, but Wall Street is looking for earnings growth.

You can see the top-10 list below.