“Apple Computer Inc. may today report profit almost doubled as quarterly sales, spurred by demand for iPod music players, surpassed $5 billion for the first time,” Bloomberg reports. “The company will probably say profit was $584.4 million, or 66 cents a share, up from $295 million, or 35 cents, a year earlier, Bear Stearns & Co. analyst Andrew Neff said. Demand for iPods spurred a 63 percent increase in first-quarter sales to $5.7 billion, Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said last week.”
“Apple sold 14 million iPods during the holidays, three times as many as a year ago, Jobs told attendees at the Macworld Expo conference in San Francisco last week, where he introduced Macintosh personal computers with Intel Corp. chips. IPods helped Apple double sales at its own stores to $1 billion, ending concerns the company couldn’t build enough to meet demand,” Bloomberg reports. “Neff, ranked among the most accurate analysts at predicting computer company earnings by StarMine Corp., boosted his price target for Apple shares to $105 from $70 after Jobs’s presentation.”
“The iPod is the best-selling digital music player, with 69 percent U.S. market share, according to researcher NPD Group Inc. in Port Washington, New York. SanDisk Corp. of Sunnyvale, California, Singapore’s Creative Technology Ltd. and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. each have less than 10 percent. iPods accounted for a third of Apple’s sales last year, up from 16 percent in 2004. Add in accessories and songs from Apple’s iTunes online store, and music accounted for 39 percent of sales in 2005,” Bloomberg reports. “‘Less than 10 percent of the U.S. population has an iPod,’ said Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster, who is based in Minneapolis. ‘There’s a lot left in terms of the Apple story and attracting first-time owners.'”
“Mac sales fell short of the 1.47 million machines expected by JPMorgan Chase analyst Bill Shope in New York. Apple probably pulled back inventory in anticipation of releasing the new Intel-based Macs. Apple also changed strategy for eMac education PCs, selling them through its online education store,” Bloomberg reports. “Apple has 4.2 percent of the U.S. PC market, said Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner… Mac shipments jumped 43 percent in the July-to-September quarter, compared with a 12 percent gain at Dell. ‘If they continue to outgrow the PC market, then this story has a lot further to run,’ said Tony Ursillo, who helps manage $63 billion at Loomis Sayles & Co. in Boston. The firm owns about 6 million Apple shares.”
Full article here.
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Wow, that would be insane YOY growth. I hope he’s right.
If recent past “predictions” are any indication then this is probably a lower guestimate.
I’d say he may be 7%-9% low.
Wow, that would be insane YOY growth. I hope he’s right.
By my calculations he’s about $100,000,000 low, or 13¢ a share. We’ll know for sure in a little over 2 hours.
“Mac sales fell short of the 1.47 million machines expected by JPMorgan Chase analyst Bill Shope in New York. Apple probably pulled back inventory in anticipation of releasing the new Intel-based Macs.
Or perhaps he too wildassedly picked a number way to high!