Apple reported a surge in quarterly earnings yesterday, solidly beating Wall Street’s estimates thanks to better-than-expected sales of nearly 30 million iPhones and iPads.
When the stock resumed trading in after-hours action, it jumped about 7 percent to $402.73. The shares ended the regular session up 0.8 percent at $376.85.
The stock has soared about 19 percent over the last month, in contrast to a flat first half of the year.
In the three months that ended its fiscal quarter June 25, Apple reported profits of $7.3 billion, or $7.79 a share, compared with $3.25 billion, or $3.51 a share, for the comparable period the previous year.
Revenue jumped 82 percent to $28.57 billion.
Analysts had been expecting profits of $5.80 a share on revenue of $24.9 billion, according to an average calculated by Thomson Reuters.
Apple’s forward-looking comments about the current quarter were highly conservative and lower than Wall Street’s estimates in keeping with the company’s usual practice.
But Apple said it sold 20.3 million iPhones in the quarter; analysts were expecting sales of about 17 million.
IPad sales came in at 9.25 million units compared with the 7.9 million expected by analysts.
Mac sales totaled 3.95 million units. Wall Street was expecting about 4 million units for the period. Sales of the iPod digital music player totaled 7.54 million units in the period compared with analyst expectations of about 8.2 million units.
“It’s clear that some customers chose to purchase an iPad instead of a new Mac,” said Apple COO Tim Cook on a conference call with analysts, but added that “even more customers chose to purchase an iPad over a Windows PC.”
For the quarter ending Sept. 30, Apple said it expects revenue of $25 billion and earnings of $5.50 a share.
Prior to the earnings release yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that since CEO Steve Jobs took a medical leave for an undisclosed ailment in January, several members of Apple’s board held informal discussions about CEO succession with executive recruiters and at least one head of an undisclosed technology company.
A source told the Journal that Apple’s independent board members have discussed management succession in private sessions without Mr. Jobs at every board meeting for the past 12 years.
Jobs responded to the newspaper with an email, calling its report “hogwash.”
— MarketWatch
When the stock resumed trading in after-hours action, it jumped about 7 percent to $402.73. The shares ended the regular session up 0.8 percent at $376.85.
The stock has soared about 19 percent over the last month, in contrast to a flat first half of the year.
In the three months that ended its fiscal quarter June 25, Apple reported profits of $7.3 billion, or $7.79 a share, compared with $3.25 billion, or $3.51 a share, for the comparable period the previous year.
Revenue jumped 82 percent to $28.57 billion.
Analysts had been expecting profits of $5.80 a share on revenue of $24.9 billion, according to an average calculated by Thomson Reuters.
Apple’s forward-looking comments about the current quarter were highly conservative and lower than Wall Street’s estimates in keeping with the company’s usual practice.
But Apple said it sold 20.3 million iPhones in the quarter; analysts were expecting sales of about 17 million.
IPad sales came in at 9.25 million units compared with the 7.9 million expected by analysts.
Mac sales totaled 3.95 million units. Wall Street was expecting about 4 million units for the period. Sales of the iPod digital music player totaled 7.54 million units in the period compared with analyst expectations of about 8.2 million units.
“It’s clear that some customers chose to purchase an iPad instead of a new Mac,” said Apple COO Tim Cook on a conference call with analysts, but added that “even more customers chose to purchase an iPad over a Windows PC.”
For the quarter ending Sept. 30, Apple said it expects revenue of $25 billion and earnings of $5.50 a share.
Prior to the earnings release yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that since CEO Steve Jobs took a medical leave for an undisclosed ailment in January, several members of Apple’s board held informal discussions about CEO succession with executive recruiters and at least one head of an undisclosed technology company.
A source told the Journal that Apple’s independent board members have discussed management succession in private sessions without Mr. Jobs at every board meeting for the past 12 years.
Jobs responded to the newspaper with an email, calling its report “hogwash.”
— MarketWatch
