“Apple Inc. on Wednesday reported its first-quarter profit soared 78%, far surpassing Wall Street expectations, as sales of its iPod media players rocketed past even the most optimistic of analysts’ forecasts,” Rex Crum reports for MarketWatch. “Apple posted a profit of $1 billion, or $1.14 a share, for the period ended Dec. 30, up from $565 million, or 65 cents, a year ago. Revenue rose 24.5% to $7.1 billion from $5.75 billion. The results beat the estimates of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call, who expected Apple to earn 78 cents a share on revenue of $6.42 billion.”
“Leading the charge for Apple was its line of iPods, with the company shipping 21 million of the market-leading devices during the quarter, a 50% jump from a year ago. Sales of the device accounted for $3.43 billion of the company’s revenue, or nearly half the total,” Crum reports. “Macintosh computer sales also surged, rising 40% to $2.4 billion, while Mac shipments rose 28% to 1.61 million units, more than double the growth of the overall PC market. The Mac results were a slightly below many analysts forecasts, as several had expected Apple to sell between 1.75 million and 1.8 million Macs during the quarter.”
Crum reports, “J.P. Morgan analyst Bill Shope downgraded the stock to neutral from overweight given that Mac sales fell short of his estimate. ‘After a significant run in the stock, our bullish thesis was based primarily on expectations for significant upside in Mac units,’ Shope said.”
Crum reports, “However, Munster of Piper Jaffray, said the holiday-quarter Mac sales needed to be taken into context, and were actually solid because they remained almost in line with Apple’s September quarter results, which is when Apple sees strong back-to-school PC sales. ‘People give iPods for Christmas, not computers,’ Munster said.”
“For its fiscal second-quarter, Apple estimates it will earn 54 cents to 56 cents a share on revenue in a range of $4.8 billion to $4.9 billion. That’s below the average forecast of Wall Street analysts, who expected Apple to earn 60 cents a share on $5.22 billion in revenue,” Crum reports. “Piper Jaffray’s Munster said the forecast shouldn’t come as a surprise, because Apple typically gives a second-quarter outlook below consensus estimates, which gives the company an opportunity to top its own forecasts when it delivers its results.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Kevin P.” for the heads up.]
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G4 Dualie-
Excellent post.
Always Right -> G4 Dualie: YES, excelent. Very well said.
Dog Gone–also great! Along those lines–Adobe CS3/Leopard in the spring (likely with new hardware), iPhone after that, and widescreen iPod next holiday (I’m SWAGing of course). Gonna be a good year, and PetersonDude’s head will finally explode.
I hope.