Apple reports growth, but investors aren't satisfied

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 19 October 2011 10:40

IT Industry - Listed Tech

 

Despite strong across the board growth - except for iPods - and good margins, the share market reacted poorly to Apple's fourth quarter results.

 

To some extent, share prices reflect investors' expectations. So it's not unusual for companies to turn in better results than their previous guidance only to be met with downturns in their share prices because they didn't outperform by as much as expected.

 

So we see Apple reporting 21% year-on-year growth in iPhone unit sales, 166% for iPad and 26% for Mac, yet the announcement was greeted by a fall of more than 6% in after hours trading.

Other highlights included quarterly revenue of $US28.27 billion and quarterly net profit of $US6.62 billion, a distinct improvement on the  $US20.34 billion and $US4.31 billion from the year-ago quarter.

Apple's guidance numbers were $US25 billion revenue, and diluted earnings per share around $US5.50, so if over $US28 billion and $US7.06 were seen as disappointing, that probably says more about the quality of some analysts' predictions rather than Apple's performance.

"We are thrilled with the very strong finish of an outstanding fiscal 2011, growing annual revenue to $US108 billion and growing earnings to $US26 billion," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Customer response to iPhone 4S has been fantastic, we have strong momentum going into the holiday season, and we remain really enthusiastic about our product pipeline."

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