Reuters
Apple results top targets, Mac sales strongMonday October 22, 5:21 pm ET
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc (NasdaqGS:
AAPL -
News) beat Wall Street targets with a 67 percent rise in quarterly profit on Monday, led by strong sales of its Macintosh computers and a big first full quarter from the iPhone, sending its shares up nearly 6 percent
The results showed that the popularity of Apple's new gadgets was driving up sales of its core computer products, analysts said.
"There's no question that Mac sales are still having a halo effect from the iPod and iPhone," said Tim Bajarin, president of technology consulting company Creative Strategies.
Apple's net profit was $904 million, or $1.01 per share, in its fiscal fourth quarter, compared with $542 million, or 62 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue was $6.22 billion, up 29 percent from $4.84 billion a year earlier.
The results handily beat Wall Street's average targets of 85 cents per share earnings and $6.06 billion revenue, according to Reuters Estimates.
Apple also forecast fiscal first-quarter revenue of $9.2 billion, ahead of the $8.7 billion average Wall Street target.
"The guidance was extremely strong, well north of consensus. It appears that they are expecting an extremely solid holiday shopping season and, I would guess, strength from the launch of the iPhone in Europe," said analyst Shannon Cross of Cross Research.
IPhone sales of 1.12 million were toward the high end of a range of forecasts given by three analysts in research notes. They expected between 900,000 and 1.2 million iPhones sold.
Apple shipped 2.2 million Macintosh computers, ahead of the three analysts' views of 1.9 million to 2.1 million, while iPod sales of 10.2 million were light of the analysts' range of 10.5 million to 11 million.
Shares of Apple have more than doubled since the start of the year, when Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone. The stock trades at 37 times its expected 2008 profit, at the high end of the company's historical range.
Shares of Apple rose to $184.39 in after-hours trade from a Nasdaq close of $174.36
