Last quarter, Apple (AAPL 0.51%) rode surprisingly strong iPhone sales to a solid earnings beat. This time, both revenue and profits came in ahead of expectations, but the stock is falling in after-hours action. Let's review the numbers.
The Mac maker reported $8.26 a share in profits on $37.5 billion in revenue. Analysts were expecting $7.93 a share and $36.84 billion, respectively, according to Yahoo! Finance.
So why are Apple shares down more than 2% in late trading? That's tougher to quantify, though a minor miss in iPad sales may be a contributing factor. Here's a product-by-product look at Apple's fiscal Q4 versus the median projections compiled by Fortune:
|
iPhones sold |
33.797 million |
32.67 million |
26.910 million |
25.6% |
|
iPads sold |
14.079 million |
14.51 million |
14.036 million |
0.3% |
|
Macs sold |
4.574 million |
4.35 million |
4.923 million |
(7.1%) |
Sources: Fortune, Apple SEC filings.
Apple just refreshed its iPad line, so a miss there is understandable. Traders may also be concerned about gross margins, which are trending down again. Apple estimates gross margin between 36.5% and 37.5% for fiscal Q1, low when you consider last year's 40% take and the pricing premium attached to Apple's newest iPads.
Yet that seems like nitpicking. Apple ended the fiscal year having produced roughly $54 billion in cash from operations, up from $51 billion last year. The Mac maker also holds $47.8 billion in cash and short-term investments and another $106.2 billion in long-term investments, versus just $16.9 billion in long-term debt.
What's more, while CEO Tim Cook shows no signs of caving to Carl Icahn's demands, Apple spent $22.8 billion to repurchase common stock and another $10.6 billion on dividends during fiscal 2013.
Looking ahead, management sees fiscal Q1 revenue of $55 billion to $58 billion, or $56.5 billion at the midpoint. Wall Street had been projecting $55.65 billion, Yahoo! Finance reports. Traders are selling anyway. What's that again about the stock market acting rationally?
