MacDailyNews presents live notes from Apple’s Q413 Conference Call with analysts starting at 5pm EDT/2pm PDT today.
Apple today beat Street on EPS and revenue, posting EPS of $8.26 and revenue of $37.5 billion vs. the analysts’ consensus of $7.93 and $36.8 billion, respectively.
Apple sold 33.8 million iPhones, a record for the September quarter, compared to 26.9 million in the year-ago quarter.
Apple’s Board of Directors also today declared a cash dividend of $3.05 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on November 14, 2013, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 11, 2013.
Live notes from Apple’s Q413 Conference Call in reverse chronological order:
• End of conference call.
• Cook: We have great relationships with carriers and they were very happy with the iPhone 5s/5c rollout
• Cook: The iPhone 5s was in huge backlog last quarter. 1.8 million iPhone units in transit at end of quarter
• Cook: It’s not clear if we’ll have enough iPad mini with Retina display units for Christmas
• Cook: I don’t expect a repeat of last year’s iMac drought this year with Macs and iOS devices
• Cook: On iPhone 5s, I feel we’re doing well on supply; demand is very high
• AAPL after hours: Up $2.62, +(0.50%, to $532.50 @ 5:54pm EDT
• DRAM and NAND flash both up last quarter, DRAM will be up, NAND will be flat and other components will decrease this quarter
• Cook: iPad mini with Retina display: We’ll see how supply meets demand after we begin shipping
• Cook: iPhone 5s – significant backlog – supply not in balance with demand yet. Looking to launchet into 100 countries by year end.
• Cook: iPad’s share of tablet market in education is 94%
• Cook: We do see Chromebooks in some place, but the vast majority of people are buying PC/Mac or iPad.
• Cook: We had our best education quarter ever. Mac up 8% YOY. iPad up 22% YOY. We feel great about education.
• Cook: It’s just another reason why everybody should buy a Mac.
• Cook: Some other folks charge $199 for OSes and productivity apps. We want to make it part of the Apple product experience.
• Cook on free OS X and iWork/iLife included with new iOS devices and Macs: We wanted this software to become a part of what it meant to use a Mac and and iOS device.
• Cook: “I think it’s going to be an iPad Christmas.”
• Cook: Later in the month we will begin shipping the new iPad mini with Retina display. Original iPad min at $299 is an incredible value
• Cook: We continue to view the tablet market as huge. A large opportunity for us. We are not focused on unit share. We are focused on customer satisfaction. We are confident that we will grow iPad sales YOY.
• Oppy: We will work very hard to decrease cost curves for all products as usual
• Oppy: We will then record that deferred revenue over time (2 years for iOS, 4 years for Mac)
• Oppy: Apple deferring revenues due to software updates/free software. About $900 million more deferred in Q114 vs. Q413.
• Cook: We are continuing to invest in greater China in retail, product launches, retail partnerships
• Cook: For FY13, China revenue was $27 billion, up 14% YOY
• Cook: Apple had a “pretty good” quarter in China, grew by 6%. iPhone sales grew over 20% in China
• Cook: We understand that there is price elasticity in emerging markets and we’ll move accordingly
• Cook: iPhone 4s is replacing the iPhone 4. The 4s is free in the U.S. The 4s price outside the U.S. depends on the market, currency, etc.
• Cook: We can use our skills in building other great products in categories in which we do not compete today
• Tim Cook on “new product categories”: I said, you’ll see some exciting new products from Apple in fall of 2013 and across 2014 and I stand by that statement.
• Early adopters line up for our “very best product” (generally not for mid-tier devices)
• Cook: Some people read rumors that the 5c would be the entry level iPhone. That, of course, was never our intent. The 4s is Apple’s entry level iPhone
• Cook: We are really pleased to have grown each tier (entry-, mid-, and top-level iPhones)
• Cook: We look to grow each category of iPhone vs. previous tiers’ devices
• Tim Cook: iPhone 4s is Apple’s entry offer. iPhone 5c is a mid-tier offer. iPhone 5s is flaghip
• Tim Cook: Going 64-bit iPhone 5s is the front end of a long roadmap (that will go un-described – MDN Ed.)
• Katy Huberty: Gross margin guidance, why is it not better? Oppenheimer: Expect gross margin between 36.5 percent and 37.5 percent. Given all of the new products we launched in the past few weeks, higher deferred revenue of $900 million for free software, currency headwinds and higher cost structures for iPad and MacBooks.
• Apple is very pleased with Q413 results
• Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2014 first quarter: revenue between $55 billion and $58 billion; gross margin between 36.5 percent and 37.5 percent; operating expenses between $4.4 billion and $4.5 billion; other income/(expense) of $200 million; tax rate of 26.25 percent
• U.S. cash has stopped accumulating due to repurchases and dividends
• 5% of shares outstanding repurchased since program began
• Apple made $36 billion in payments ($23 billion of which were share buybacks)
• $111.3 billion, 76% of total cash, was offshore
• $35.5 in U.S. cash on hand
• $146.8b in cash total on hand
• 30 ARS to open next year, 20 of which are outside the U.S.
• 416 ARS, 162 of which are outside the U.S.
• Apple Retail STores: $4.5 billion in revenueu, up 6%
• 20 million listeners and growing have listened to Apple’s new iTunes Radio
• Nearly 2/3rds of iOS users have already adopted the latest iOS 7 operating system
• $13 billion paid to iOS developers, half of which was paid out over the last year
• iTunes software and service: $4.3 billion in reveneu a 22% YOY increase
• 4.6 million Mac sales (7% decline YOY vs. 10% in general PC market). Mac continues to gain share vs. crappy Windows PCs, just as they have in 29 of the last 30 quarters.
• iPad seeing broad deployments in enterprise and education
• iPad 4.1 million in channel inventory with Apple’s 4-6 week inventory target range
• 35,000 are building custom iOS apps for their iPhone and iPad users
• ChangeWave: 96% customer satisfaction rate among iPhone users – significantly higher than rivals
• Oppy: 14.3 million iPhone in channel inventory, at the low end of 406 weeks target range
• AAPL in after hours trading: Down $10.02, or -1.89%, to $519.86 @ 5:09pm EDT
• Apple generated $9.9 billion in cash flow from operations and returned an additional $7.8 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during Q413
• Tim Cook: “We’re pleased to report a strong finish to an amazing year with record fourth quarter revenue.”
• Apple will announce any change to capital allocation programs in the first part of 2014
• Apple completed 15 strategic acquisitions over the year
• Apple produced over $50 million in revenue per Retail Store
• Apple’s Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $3.05 per share of the Company’s common stock payable on November 14, 2013, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 11, 2013
• 4.6 million Macs sold vs. 4.9 million YOY
• 14.1 million iPads sold during the quarter vs. 14 million YOY
• Company sold 33.8 million iPhones, a record for the September quarter, vs. 26.9 million YOY
• Quarterly net profit of $7.5 billion, or $8.26 per diluted share vs. $8.2 billion, or $8.67 per diluted share YOY
• Quarterly revenue of $37.5 billion vs. $36 billion YOY
• Start of call: Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer present
• AAPL in after hours trading: Down $11.41, or -2.15%, to $518.47 @ 4:55pm EDT
• Apple’s Q414 results mark the 3rd consecutive quarterly decline in earnings
• AAPL in after hours trading: Down $13.51, or -2.55%, to $516.37 @ 4:43pm EDT
• Awaiting start of conference call at at 5pm EDT/2pm PDT.