Due to the solid earnings report, Apple shares rose 0.83% to $115.50, as of 5:27 PM EDT in the pre-market trading hours.
Advertisement
The company made $51.5 billion in revenue and $11.1 billion in profit, or $1.96 per share.
Net sales rose about 22 percent to $51.50 billion. “We returned $17 billion to our investors during the quarter through share repurchases and dividends, and we have now completed over $143 billion of our $200 billion capital return program”. In Q3 the iPad dropped even further to 10.9 million units shipped, another year-over-year decline.
Cupertino-based Apple posted earnings results that soared well above analysts’ expectations. The company sold 48 million handsets last quarter, up 22 per cent from a year earlier and shy of analysts’ average prediction of 48.5 million shipments. That is the number of iPhone units that the company sold in the quarter.
Starting at 2 p.m. PDT, Apple will hold a financial results conference call for analysts. A total of 48 million iPhones were sold during Q4, while the iPad slipped in significantly lower at 9.9 million and Mac came in at 5.7 million. Revenue estimates are close to $53 billion To make matters worse, Wall Street expects it to “beat its numbers”. Apple’s product page suggests that the device will have gone out to customers by the end of the week. Apple released the new iPhones accompanied by a marketing campaign-“The only thing that’s changed is everything”-aimed at critics who said the phones don’t deliver as many noticeable changes as predecessors”.
That revenue number is double what it was a year ago, but down a little from the previous quarter this year.
More than any other product, the iPhone is the linchpin to Apple’s earnings. The stock’s performance shows the fickle nature of Wall Street.
Cook mentioned the company’s agreements with IBM and Cisco as well as partnerships with 75 other mobile app developers as drivers of its growing success in the enterprise. Apple faced a similar challenge in 2013, when sales slowed amid competition from Samsung Electronics Co.
Advertisement
“They get graded on a curve”, JMP’s Gauna said.
