Apple today blew away Street expectations, announcing record financial results for its fiscal 2007 fourth quarter ended September 29, 2007. The Company posted revenue of $6.22 billion and net quarterly profit of $904 million, or $1.01 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $4.84 billion and net quarterly profit of $542 million, or $.62 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 33.6 percent, up from 29.2 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 40 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
Ahead of earnings, analysts’ consensus estimates, as surveyed by Thomson Financial, were for Apple will earn $0.86 per share on $6.07 billion in revenue for the quarter, compared to a profit of $0.62 per share on $4.84 billion in revenue in the year ago quarter.
Apple shipped 2,164,000 Macintosh computers, representing 34% growth over the year-ago quarter and exceeding the previous quarterly record for Mac shipments by 400,000. The Company sold 10,200,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 17 percent growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone sales were 1,119,000, bringing cumulative fiscal 2007 sales to 1,389,000.
Apple guided above Wall Street expectations for Q1 08: Apple sees revs of $9.2 billion and earnings of about $1.42 per share. The Street consensus was for $8.58 billion in revenue and earnings of $1.39 per share.
Apple’s iPhone, “a combination cell phone, iPod and multimedia Web device, ‘is a game-changing product,’ said Stephen Coleman, chief investment officer at Daedalus Capital LLC,” May Wong reports for The Associated Press.
Wong reports, “Based on income from the iPhone alone, ‘I expect Apple’s earnings to continually grow materially at 50 percent a year, for the next three years,’ Coleman said.”
Full article here.
“‘They knocked the cover off the ball,’ Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies in Wayland, Massachusetts, said in an interview. ‘More than 2 million Macs, sold lots and lots of iPods, and the phones have done better than expected,'” Connie Guglielmo reports for Bloomberg.
“‘They’ve tended to underpromise and overdeliver,’ said Romeo Dator, who helps manage $5.3 billion at San Antonio-based U.S. Global Investors Inc., which owns Apple shares. ‘They’ll probably overdeliver again.'” Guglielmo reports.
“‘Apple is reaching a strong inflection point in terms of PC market share,’ said Mike Abramsky, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, which raised its Apple share price estimate by 17 percent to $205 last week. ‘Even though there’s a lot of focus on the iPhone, it’s really the Mac that’s driving the growth in revenue and earnings per share,'” Guglielmo reports.
Full article here.
“‘There’s no question that Mac sales are still having a halo effect from the iPod and iPhone,’ said Tim Bajarin, president of technology consulting company Creative Strategies,” Reuters reports.
“‘The guidance was extremely strong, well north of consensus. It appears that they are expecting an extremely solid holiday shopping season and, I would guess, strength from the launch of the iPhone in Europe,’ said analyst Shannon Cross of Cross Research,” Reuters reports.
Full article here.
Beautiful
Still time to get some more AAPL.
Has Laura Goldman lost her job yet?
AAPL +3.94 for the day and +13.14 in after-market trading for a total one day gain of +$17.08 per share.. Woo hoo!
Buy MSFT!!! Sell AAPL!!!
BUY AAPL
ANYTHING UNDER 200 IS A GIFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If Apple’s earnings really do grow by 50 percent a year for the next three years, AAPL stock will have paid for my entire house by then!
Interesting quote from Roger Kay. He was still saying as recently as this past January after Macworld that the iPod halo was a myth.
Myth this, Roger Kay!
Hey, don’t be so bullish on AAPL, folks. After all, MSFT was up $.34 today . . . and is within $.50 of being back to where it was in January of this year.
GO MSFT! Ballmer and Gates, they’re our guys!
If this keeps up, they’ll have passed Microsoft’s market cap by the end of 2009. I’m looking forward to the word “beleagured” being used whenever Microsoft is mentioned.
Something that struck me about the report…
Apple is notorious in the financial community of announcing projections for future growth much more conservatively than the pundits and analyists. This time, Apple has projections “well north of consensus. It appears that they are expecting an extremely solid holiday shopping season and, I would guess, strength from the launch of the iPhone in Europe.’
So, the question is: Has the leadership at Apple changed its policy of “underpromise, overdeliver” or do they know something we don’t to justify this?
Is it wrong to expect a huge Leopard surprise or am I okay? I keep thinking that there’s stuff about Leopard, at least about how it will interact with iPhone, that they haven’t told us yet. But without a special event I’m not sure when it would come out…
Mark: Laughed my ass off!
Beleagured MSFT.
Once a psychological market share threshold is reached, perception will favor Apple as THE product to buy, most importantly for those who know little to nothing about Apple. Those are the true lemmings who make “safe” choices based on what everyone else is doing. Apple will always be a premium brand out of reach to some, but like Honda and Toyota who command higher prices even out of the less-than-wealthy, Apple stands to become an ever-growing mainstream computing platform.
This psychological barrier is The Tipping Point®. It will be at this inflection point that the tide also turns very strongly against shoddier competitors, including Microsoft.
What, silence from Zune Tang?
Just listened to the stream. Apple is working directly with Salesforce.com on the iPhone integration.
Dazzling earnings report? What the hell report are they reading?
Did the report mention proprietary computers you can’t customize? How about smug and snobby MAC users? No? What about over priced MACs and laughable market share? No again? Okay, how about games. Did the report mention games on a MAC? Didn’t think so. Everything is dazzling when you gloss over Apple’s many failings.
Your potential. Our passion.™
@Tremor: I agree. Is the current product lineup (including iPhone in Europe) enough to reach those targets?
Or is there a new MacBook, Mac Pro, AppleTV, and video rentals ready to be released?
Time to do some research to find out when this “north of consensus” happened before and then what happened after…
@ Zune Tang
I know Zune Tang. Zune Tang is a friend of mine. And you, sir, are no Zune Tang.
(Hint: S,He does satire. When you suck we all know it’s not really you. You can’t just rant. It just makes you sucky when you rant. So leave it to the pro. Or else abandon the line.)
@Shogun
I think we’ve seen all there is to see of Leopard. They wouldn’t release a guided tour that didn’t include all the killer features.
Thanks Zune Tang. It’s never the same without you.
You have a hell of an unfair advantage when you’re the only one in the business, cell phone, MP3 player and computer, that can write decent operating system software.
wait did microsoft beat apple i read that they had 913 million in profit so they beat apple by 9 million
were catching up:)
Stories like this make me feel good. Glad I stuck through the beleagured times.
1. Did the report mention proprietary computers you can’t customize?
Mac Pro, 33 million possible configurations.. Nuff said.
http://store.apple.com/AppleStore/WebObjects/BizCustom?qprm=78313&family=MacPro
2. How about smug and snobby MAC users?
It’s an earnings report, not a user-base report.
3. What about over priced MACs and laughable market share?
http://www.dell.com Build one with the same specs as any Mac offered and weep. You’re attempt at a point is moot.
Apple US market-share is 3rd between HP and Dell, but well ahead of Sony, Gateway, Toshiba, Acer, Lenovo and others for US marketshare.. 3rd place is hardly “laughable.”
4.Okay, how about games. Did the report mention games on a MAC? Didn’t think so.
That’s because it’s an earnings report, not a “software available” report. If you really want to check out Mac games, look here:
http://www.apple.com/games/ …and if you want a PC game, well then run it with Boot Camp.. Nuff said.
Everything is dazzling when you gloss over Apple’s many failings.
ZuneTang, even though you’re joking, you’re gonna have to do better than this.