Monday, October 22, 2007

Apple Earnings Blow Past "Whisper Number"; Just Warming Up

Congratulations to Apple on a reporting spectacular quarter and fiscal year. From the official release:
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.
They did over $24 billion in revenues for the year.

The current quarter should be even more spectacular. It's traditionally Apple's best. Leopard will ship. People who have deferred hardware purchases to wait for Leopard will buy Macs. The new iPods continue to be a popular gift. And the iPhone is charging ahead at $399. But, of course, with everyone expecting great results, the pressure gets even higher to beat those expectations.

Mickeleh's Take: For anyone holding Apple shares, it's time to sell just a few and tip the croupier by buying some Apple goodies.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't count on growing mac sales to boost the quarter, even with delayed purchases awaiting leopard. According to Apple, Mac sales will be flat or lower in the next quarter. They were very high in the past quarter due to a great back-to-school.

Their higher guidance for the next quarter is interesting, especially given their expectation for flat mac sales. they are typically very conservative, but they've actually now upped expectations. hope they are still being conservative on their even higher revenues. That would be a great quarter.

In the meantime, I will sell off a bit and will tip the dealer by picking up an iphone for my wife. but it will be a tip in which the dealer gives me part of the tip back ... like 100 bucks back.

Michael Markman said...

Thanks for pointing out Tim Cook's cautionary note in yesterday's call that Mac sales "could" be flat.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Let's say that Mac sales in the current quarter match the quarter just reported, they will sell2,164,000 units.

That's a huge jump over last year's Q1 of 1,606,000 units.

Here's what Apple did a year ago:

Q4 (back-to-school): 1,610,000; Q1 (holiday) 1,606,000.

Another consideration: it would appear from the year-to-year sales jump that Apple's long-standing pipe dream of enticing "switchers" may actually be materializing.

Time will tell.