Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2011 fourth quarter ended September 24, 2011. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $28.27 billion and quarterly net profit of $6.62 billion, or $7.05 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $20.34 billion and net quarterly profit of $4.31 billion, or $4.64 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.3 percent compared to 36.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 63 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
The Company sold 17.07 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 21 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 11.12 million iPads during the quarter, a 166 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 6.62 million iPods, a 27 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.
“We are thrilled with the very strong finish of an outstanding fiscal 2011, growing annual revenue to $108 billion and growing earnings to $26 billion,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “Customer response to iPhone 4S has been fantastic, we have strong momentum going into the holiday season, and we remain really enthusiastic about our product pipeline.”
“We are extremely pleased with our record September quarter revenue and earnings and with cash generation of $5.4 billion during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2012, which will span 14 weeks rather than 13, we expect revenue of about $37 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $9.30.”
MacDailyNews Take: Analysts’ consensus estimates called for $29.69 billion in revenue and $7.39 EPS.
First AAPL EPS miss since 2004. Expect the bears to jump all over this “miss” in Street expectations, while never mentioning the record revenue or that Apple did significantly better than Apple themselves guided. They will say “it’s all over because Steve is dead,” that not enough iPhones were sold (while ignoring that most expected a new iPhone in the fall), and anything and everything else they can dream up to beat down the shares. In other words, expect an “AAPL sale.”
In the year-ago quarter, Q410, Apple posted then-record revenue of $20.34 billion and net quarterly profit of $4.31 billion, or $4.64 per diluted share.
In a rather amazing turn of events, Apple actually forecast above Street expectations, so there’s a little something for the bulls, at least.
Update, 4:42pm ET: AAPL down -$24.24, or -5.74% to $398.00 in after-hours trading.
Update: 4:53pm ET: AAPL down -$26.44, or -6.26%, to $395.80.