“Steve Jobs may not be sure how much the economic slump will hurt Apple, but he’s clear on this: It won’t be as bad as pessimists predict. And for the first time in eight years, he got on an analyst conference call to discuss quarterly results to make sure the point wasn’t lost on anyone,” Arik Hesseldahl reports for BusinessWeek.
“‘We may get buffeted by the waves a bit, but we’ll be fine,’ Jobs said on the call, following the release of Apple’s fiscal fourth-quarter results,” Hesseldahl reports.
“Fiscal fourth-quarter earnings were $1.26, a full 15¢ higher than analysts had predicted. And had Apple recorded sales of iPhones the same way it accounts for sales of Macs and iPods, per-share earnings would have been $2.69 on sales of $11.7 billion. ‘If this isn’t stunning, I don’t know what is,’ Jobs crowed,” Hesseldahl reports.
“But in the immediate aftermath of the results, it was Jobs’ comments about Apple being “fine” that carried most weight with investors. Apple shares, which had slumped more than 7% in regular trading, surged $12.84, or more than 14%, to 104.32 in extended trading after the results were released,” Hesseldahl reports.
“The appearance of Jobs on an earnings call was unusual. While he regularly appeared on earnings calls for Pixar before it was sold to Walt Disney (DIS), Jobs last appeared on an Apple earnings call in October 2000, and then later that year on another conference call with analysts in December, when the company warned about disappointing results. ‘What he’s trying to say, but not in so many words, is that he thinks the stock is undervalued,’ says Bill Kreher, analyst with Edward D. Jones,” Hesseldahl reports.
Full article here.
Of course it is! What do those analysts know? Just ask Laura Goldman and her cohort of buffoons, you will begin to see what he means.
It’s too bad MS didn’t borrow money and buy Yahoo before the market tailspin. Karma denied.
I watched 2 shows this morning at the same time and both Bloomberg and the other had the same clueless idiot talking about Apple.
He again based his thinking on Apple not selling a dirt cheep PC in these hard times. He did not notice that Apple doesn’t make a cheep throwaway flip phone either.
i am glad he started to talk about the non gaap income. even with declining quarter to quarter mac- and iphone sales, apple is now officially a 40 billion company with roughly 9-10 $ a share net income in 2009, which makes a 2009 p/e ratio of 11. and ex cash (30 billion cash on the bank in 2009) of 6!
i think all these analysts who think that the apple share price is now about right have all lost their mind.
I can’t wait to see apple dominating the globe…
would be nice for apple to pickup a printing company like epson
or even canon to make sure their cameras work on a mac
Laura Goldman placed a sell order on AAPL at $130, right? Sure it went to $200, but it’s now below her $130 sell price, so… I don’t have much of a point here except that NO ONE knows where the market is going. Not you, not me, not buffoons like Laura Goldman.
When asked why Apple only had one model of iPhone, Steve replied, “Babe Ruth only had one home run. He just kept hitting it over and over again.”
Priceless.
@bioness
Apple used to do printers and cameras, they don’t any more. Maybe they know something about those businesses that we don’t?
Better that Apple leaves somethings to others, and just works with those companies to makes sure that their products work with Apple products.
It’s a lot like software. Apple writes some great software, but counts on others to provide more great software.
It’s the “ecosystem” idea, and it works.
“Apple used to do printers and cameras, they don’t any more. Maybe they know something about those businesses that we don’t?”
They do know something and that something is, if they can’t add anything of a vastly significant value to the user experience, they don’t tread in that market. Once they have a product that offers a vastly superior experience they can charge a premium price for it, instead of dwelling in the commodity market and only having price as a differentiator.
Kreher was right, Steve does thing AAPL is undervalued and that the analysts don’t understand GAAP accounting. That’s why the press release and Steve, on the conference call, went over the non-GAAP figures. Analysts are stupid, you have to handfeed them the info.
SJ also alluded to doing something with the cash hoard – a reference to good opportunities to purchase other businesses/technologies.
Investing some of the money in technology or in itself will likely pay far better returns than keeping it all in low-paying financial assets. Now is the time when prices are cheap to take advantage of circumstances.
@Uh-Oh,
Yes, he did. Let the speculating begin!
(see below for the list of companies that Apple “will” be buying soon brought to you by the readers of MDN)