“Apple Computer’s third-quarter report was sweet and sour for investors. The company blew through analysts earnings expectations and its own forecasts. But it offered a somewhat disappointing outlook for its fiscal fourth quarter,” Troy Wolverton writes for TheStreet.com.
“Apple projected it would earn 32 cents a share in the current quarter on $3.5 billion in sales,” Wolverton writes. “That’s slightly lower than Wall Street’s estimates. Sell-siders had previously predicted that Apple will earn 33 cents a share on $3.58 billion in sales in its fourth quarter… the report had some potentially troubling signs. For at least the second quarter in a row, the average sales price of Apple’s iPod fell in the third quarter. Apple saw about $179 for each of the digital music players it sold in the quarter, down from about $191 in the second quarter and nearly $290 in the year-ago period.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple delivers the highest revenue and earnings in the company’s history and Wolverton sees it as “a mixed bag.” Does this guy want into the Enderle, Dvorak, and Thurrott weekly bridge game or what? Yes, this is the same Troy Wolverton who wrote last week that iPod demand “has slowed in recent months” because SigmaTel, which makes flash-memory for low-end music players, cut its second quarter revenue estimates and Creative Technology cut its own revenue outlook due to a shortfall on weaker-than-expected demand. For the record, Apple sold 6.155 million iPods; the highest Wall Street analyst had pegged iPod shipments at 5.5 million. Now, Wolverton wants to make Apple’s prudent Q4 2005 forecast ($3.5 billion) an issue, but he neglects to mention that Apple’s revenue forecast is a 50% increase year-over-year, the bulk of Tiger revenue has already been reaped, and the projection is based on a conservative outlook as Apple undertakes the transition to Intel-based Macs.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
The Street: the time may be ripe for Apple to get back to the Mac – July 13, 2005
TheStreet.com dubiously concludes that iPod demand has slowed, could impact Apple earnings – July 06, 2005
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MacDailyNews’ live coverage of Apple Q3 2005 earnings conference call – July 13, 2005
Apple smashes street with record revenue, earnings; shipped 6.155 million iPods – July 13, 2005
Apple Q3 2005 Macintosh and iPod unit results – July 13, 2005