October 19th, 2009

Apple announces most profitable quarter ever: Q4 2009

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 8:22 pm

Categories: Apple, Earnings, Finance

Tags: Financial, Apple Inc., Conference Call, Financial Result, Financial Accounting, Finance, Jason D. O'Grady

Apple announced record Mac and iPhone sales and its most profitable quarter ever in its Q4 2009 earnings conference call today.

The Company posted revenue of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion, or $1.26 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.6 percent, up from 34.7 percent in the year-ago quarter.

Jobs also noted that the company has some “really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.” Tablet, anyone?

As always, the most interesting comments happen when they open the conference call to questions. When asked about competition for the iPhone in the holiday season (i.e. Android), Apple responded:

Almost 21 million for the fiscal year sold now in terms of iPhones, so we have momentum. Plus the App Store with 85,000 apps is so far beyond anyone else. We feel good about competing with anyone. I think people are still trying to catch up with the first iPhone, announced 2 years ago. We’ve moved beyond that.

You can listen to a rebroadcast of the call in QuickTime, it will be posted later as a podcast in iTunes.

July 21st, 2009

Apple’s Q3 2009: best non-holiday quarter in company history

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 2:00 pm

Categories: AAPL, Earnings, Finance

Tags: Revenue, Quarter, Apple Inc., Operational Accounting, Finance, Jason D. O'Grady

Apple’s Q3 2009 earnings conference call is under way, you can listen to the live stream beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET, 2:00 p.m. PT.

The press release has been posted and Apple reported the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in Apple history. Some highlights:

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 third quarter ended June 27, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $8.34 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.23 billion, or $1.35 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.46 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion, or $1.19 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.3 percent, up from 34.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple sold 2.6 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing a four percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 10.2 million iPods during the quarter, representing a seven percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhones sold were 5.2 million, representing 626 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

AAPL shares are up in after hours trading. Currently: 158.33 +6.82 (4.50%)

July 20th, 2009

Ahead of the tape: Apple Q309 earnings preview

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 7:46 am

Categories: AAPL, Earnings, Finance

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Apple Inc., Earnings, iPhone 3GS Sale, Sales Strategy, Sales Force Management, Financial Accounting, Sales, Finance, Jason D. O'Grady

Apple plans to conduct a conference call to discuss financial results of its third fiscal quarter tomorrow,  Tuesday, 21 July 21 2009 at 2:00 p.m. PT, 5:00 p.m. ET. The conference call will be streamed via Quicktime (natch) from the company’s Investor Relations Web site.

CNet new has posted an excellent piece on what to expect from Apple’s quarterly progress report.

Analysts are expecting revenues for the quarter between $7.88 billion and $8.44 billion, and earnings per share between $1.02 and $1.31. Apple itself–which always gives guidance on the low side–is anticipating revenue between $7.7 billion and $7.9 billion and earnings per share between 95 cents and a dollar.

iPhone 3GS sales are expected to be excellent with over 1 million sold in the first weekend and AT&T reporting that launch day was the carrier’s single best sales day in history. Piper Jaffray expects that 5 million iPhones were sold in the quarter.

The real question is Mac sales. Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster estimates that Apple sold 2.2 million Macs during the quarter benefiting from price cuts and the launch of the aluminum MacBook Pros. But IDC recently noted that U.S. Mac shipments dropped by over 12 percent this quarter while the entire PC industry was down only 3.1 percent worldwide.

There will be lots of questions about the economy and Steve Jobs’ health and the call should be enlightening. I wouldn’t be surprised if Steve Jobs appeared on the call himself, if for no other reason than to calm the nerves of jittery investors.

At press time AAPL is trading at 153.68 +1.93‎ (1.27%‎).

May 26th, 2009

Morgan Stanley turns bullish on AAPL; sets $180 target

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 9:16 am

Categories: AAPL, Finance

Tags: Apple Inc., Morgan Stanley, Apple Stock, Investment, Finance, Jason D. O'Grady

If you’re still dreaming of grilled bratwurst and ribs (or gardening or the beach) after the long Memorial Day holiday weekend here in the United States, you may want to wake up and check your portfolio –- especially if you own shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).

Apple stock is on a tear this morning up almost $7 (~5.5%) to around $130 at the stroke of noon eastern time. While many would attribute the rise in AAPL shares to the fact that the market in general is up this morning, others will say that it’s the imminent announcement of the third-generation iPhone that’s pumping the stock.

Another reason for the rise in AAPL shares is a new report from Morgan Stanley analyst Kathryn Huberty increasing her rating on the stock to Overweight from Equal Weight, lifting her price target to $180, from $105.

Citing better long-term growth potential than the Street generally realizes, Huberty writes “iPhone is feeding earnings growth that the market is missing,” and “We believe Apple is emerging as the clear leader in the battle over the mobile Internet. We size this as an incremental 4 billion installed base opportunity for Apple, 4x the installed base of PCs and 10x the installed base of MP3 players.”

Huberty goes on to call Apple’s September 2009 quarter a “key inflection point” noting that an expected iPhone price cut…

…could drive 50%-100% incremental unit demand: a $50 price cut should drive 50% growth, she says, and a $100 cut, a 100% increase. She also says 15%-plus of the current installed base typically upgrades to a new generation phone.

More on the report is available from Barrons.

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May 6th, 2009

Apple should acquire...

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 9:18 am

Categories: Acquisition, Finance, Twitter

Tags: Apple Inc., Mergers & Acquisitions, Free Trade, Corporate Law, Investment, Finance, Business Operations, Jason D. O'Grady

Yesterday’s rumor from Gawker that Apple is in negotiations to acquire Twitter for $700 million made me smile. Not because I think that it would be a great acquisition (I don’t) but because it’s just one of the many companies that Cupertino has been rumored to buy over the years.

Not that it couldn’t. Apple has a very public $29 billion in cash reserves (which is bested only by Cisco’s $30 billion among tech companies) and could buy a substantial amount of the tech companies that are out there – they just never do. Apple seems perfectly content to sit on its cash hoard just in case a rainy day comes along.

Here’s a short list of some of the companies that Apple has been rumored to acquire over the years:

• Adobe (2008)
• AMD (2007)
• Autodesk (2008)
• Disney (2006)
• Electronic Arts (2009)
• Netflix (2007)
• Nintento (2006)
• Palm (2006)
• Pandora (2008)
• Pixar (2005)
• Sony (2008)
• Sun (2006 and 2009)
• TiVo (2005)
• Twitter (2009)
• Universal Music (2003)
• Yahoo! (2009)

I’m just as guilty as the rest for spending Apple’s bankroll. I’ve suggested Apple acquire TiVo (serveral times), Netflix, Pandora,  Shazam, Midomi, Last.fm and even Hulu – but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen either.

Who did I miss?

Photo: AppleGazette

April 22nd, 2009

Apple disses netbooks, again

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 2:43 pm

Categories: AAPL, Earnings, Finance, Netbook

Tags: Apple Inc., Netbook, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Hardware, Jason D. O'Grady

When asked about netbooks on today’s Q2 2009 earning conference call Apple’s chief operating officer Timothy D. Cook took a couple of pointed shots at the ultra-small notebooks, saying (paraphrased):

• I see cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, small screens, things I would not put the Mac brand on
• Not interested in them in the short term
• We do look at ths space and interested to see how our customers react to them
• The iPhone and iPod touch already do a lot of what a netbook does
• If we find a way to deliver an innovative product we’ll do that
• We have interesting ideas in the space
• It’s a stretch to call netbooks personal computers, they’re propping up PC manufacturer’s numbers

Does Apple just have its head in the sand or is it intentionally hiding the fact that it’s secretly developing a netbook?

Photo: Cult of Mac

April 22nd, 2009

Apple's Q209 earnings. Recession? What recession? (Updated)

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 12:00 pm

Categories: AAPL, Earnings, Finance

Tags: Apple Inc., Financial Web Site Seeking Alpha, Financial Accounting, Finance, Jason D. O'Grady

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is holding its Q209 earnings conference call with analysts today, 22 April 2009 at 5pm ET, 2PM PT. The call is being streamed via QuickTime from Apple’s investor Web site.

Highlights of the results include:

• Revenue of $8.16 billion, compared to $7.51 billion in the year-ago quarter
• Net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share, compared to $1.05 billion, or $1.16
• Gross margin was 36.4 percent, up from 32.9 percent
• International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter’s revenue
• 2.22 million Macs sold during the quarter, a three percent unit decline
• 11.01 million iPods sold during the quarter, representing three percent unit growth
• 3.79 million iPhones sold, a 123 percent unit growth

A press release has all the details.

Update: WSJ has a live blog of the call that reads like a transcript.

April 13th, 2009

Apple is recession proof

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 7:08 am

Categories: AAPL, Finance

Tags: Jason D. O'Grady

Back in December 2008 I blogged about Apple being recession-proof based on comments to that effect by financial analyst Shaw Wu and Apple COO, Tim Cook. TUAW notes that a panel on CNBC’s Fast Money concurs, noting that AAPL shares have jumped 40% so far this year, outperforming the NASDAQ.

The chart below (courtesy of Google Finance) shows how AAPL (blue) compared to the NASDAQ (red) over the last three months.

As for the stock’s immediate future, the panel and Mr. Mark point to this summer’s concurrent release of iPhone OS 3.0 and a likely new iPhone model as a powerful stimulus. Finally, Mr. Mark notes that it isn’t often that an electronic gadget becomes more useful and valuable over time.

The numbers don’t lie folks. While no one’s completely immune to a slowing economy Apple has remained virtually recession-proof (so far).

Can they continue to buck the trend?

Tip: CNBC via TUAW

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January 22nd, 2009

Apple Q1 2009 earnings recap

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 7:44 am

Categories: AAPL, Finance

Tags: Unit Growth, Apple Inc., Earnings, Sales Strategy, Sales, Jason D. O'Grady

In case you missed it, here’s a recap of last night’s earnings conference call with analysts:

• Record revenue of $10.17 billion (compared to $9.6 billion in the year-ago quarter)
• Record net quarterly profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 per diluted share ($1.58 billion, or $1.76 per diluted share)
• Gross margin was 34.7 percent, equal to the year-ago quarter.
• International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
• iPhone and Apple TV had $11.8 billion of “Adjusted Sales” and $2.3 billion of “Adjusted Net Income.”
• Sold 2,524,000 Macs (nine percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter)
• Sold a record 22,727,000 iPods (three percent unit growth)
• Sold 4,363,000 iPhones (88 percent unit growth)

Apple has issued a press release with the details and you can stream the conference call via QuickTime or download it as a podcast via iTunes.

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January 21st, 2009

Apple to announce Q1 2009 earnings after the bell

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 11:05 am

Categories: AAPL, Finance

Tags: Apple Inc., Earnings, Financial Accounting, Finance, Jason D. O'Grady

Apple will hold its quarterly conference call with analysts to discuss financial results of its first fiscal quarter of 2009 today (21 January 2009) at 2:00 pm PT, 5:00 pm ET.

You can listen to the audio webcast live via QuickTime here:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq109/

AppleInsider has posted an earnings preview by Bullish Cross‘ Andy M. Zaky:

On average, the analysts are looking for the Cupertino-based electronics maker to sell approximately 4.5 million iPhones, 18.5 million iPods and about 2.45 million Macs.

Fortune has posted an AAPL earnings smackdown comparing:

The Street (Thompson Financial):

expects Apple to report a relatively anemic quarter, with earnings of $1.38 per share on revenue of $9.74 billion. (Apple’s guidance offered a range: EPS between $1.06 and $1.35 on sales somewhere between $9.0 and $10.0 billion.)

to The Blogger (Zaky):

expecting a blow-out quarter so much better than the Street’s consensus — as much as $1 billion — that trading in Apple shares could be halted. The key will be the adjusted — or non-GAAP — earnings that fully report revenue from iPhone sales

On 13 January 2009 AAPL shares were trading at 86.91 – today AAPL is trading around 80.58.

More information is available on Apple’s Investor Relations Web site.

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