“This quarter, Apple’s (AAPL) earnings failed to impress investors,” Stephen Rosenman writes for Seekign Alpha. “Wall Street promptly hurled it off a cliff…”
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s record earnings were impressive to most; it was Apple’s Q2 08 guidance that failed to meet the Street’s expectations.
“But, wait. What if I told you that Apple forgot to enter 2 of the 2.3 million phones it sold this quarter, that they just skipped them, took the dough, are using it and just left it plain – well- out of the net income? Well, they did. They ‘deferred’ them,” Rosenman writes. “Apple’s earnings are far more impressive when you consider that their iPhone and [Apple TV] numbers are largely not entered in when they are sold. Rather, Apple stretches the revenues out over a two year period, only entering 1/8 of them each quarter.”
“Over the next two years, most of 3.288 billion dollars of deferred revenues will drop effortlessly to the bottom line. If Apple decided, quite legitimately, it could have taken those 816 million dollars as earnings this last quarter. Instead of 1.58 billion dollars, it easily could have logged 1.58 + 0.816, or 2.396 billion dollars, or about $2.65 a share. If they had reported that number — $2.65 a share — which is real net income earned, the stock price would be up to 230 rather than dropping to 130,” Rosenman writes.
“The earnings are there. They are real. They will be logged in over the next 7 quarters. The street needs to understand that Apple is reporting their earnings differently than most other companies and by doing so their explosive growth is vastly understated. There is nothing disappointing about this quarter. Au contraire, it is a blow-out,” Rosenman writes.
Full article here.
