| Apple has posted a profit of US$203 million, or $1.20 per diluted share for their 3rd fiscal quarter which ended in June. During the same quarter last year, Apple posted a profit of US$101 million or US$.65 per diluted share. That figure included the sale of 10 million shares of ARM Holdings plc. Without this non-recurring item, Apple's net income for the quarter would have been US$114 million or US$.69 per diluted share. That is the number that analysts care about and Apple has again beaten estimates for the quarter.
Some analysts had predicted a US$.64 per share profit, and others had called for a US$.68 per share profit. In either case, Apple beat the estimate which should be looked on favorably by Wall Street.
In other good news from Apple, the company reported unit growth of 40%, well ahead of the industry average as counted by PC Data of 21%. This included double digit growth in every single geographic region in the world when compared to the year-ago period. In Japan, Apple's growth exploded at 98% over the year ago period.
The iMac accounted for some 54% of Apple's product mix. This is up from 43% from the 2nd quarter. For the quarter, Apple shipped 905,000 units, 487,000 of which were iMacs. Just shy of the 519,000 iMacs sold in the Christmas quarter.
Revenues for the quarter were US$1.56 billion. This is up 11 percent from the year-ago quarter. And in an opposite scenario from every other PC manufacturer, gross margins were 27.4 percent, up from 25.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. Fred Anderson announced in a press conference that the increase in gross margins could be attributed in large part to stable pricing on the iMac and lower component costs. He specifically named DRAM and processor costs.
Lastly, Apple announced a US$500 million stock buyback plan.
Congratulations to Apple for their 7th consecutive profitable quarter!
The Mac Observer Spin: Great news all around. Investors should be pleased. Not only did Apple beat the consensus calls, they are also going to be buying back a healthy chunk of their own stock. This means that Apple will be picking up stock at times when the stock dips. That translates into higher support levels which may help the stock stay above the US$50 mark.
Wall Street will also love those gross margins, the highest in the hardware industry. The number of iMacs sold will also be seen as a good sign. With almost as many iMacs sold as in the Christmas quarter, that will be seen as an affirmation of the product's long term viability. In other words, it's ot just a fad.
Apple
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