Despite any misgivings about Steve Jobs taking a medical leave of absence from Apple and how it might affect the company’s share price, Apple’s earnings during the first quarter of fiscal 2011 should more than allay those concerns.
Despite any misgivings about Steve Jobs taking a medical leave of absence from Apple and how it might affect the company’s share price, Apple’s earnings during the first quarter of fiscal 2011 should more than allay those concerns. Apple yesterday released its Q1 2011 financial results and posted a quarterly profit of $6 billion on revenue of $26.74 billion – both figures being all-time highs. During the same quarter a year-ago, Apple posted a quarterly profit of $3.38 billion on revenue of $15.68 billion. That’s an astounding 77% increase in profits year over year, a feat made all the more impressive given that Apple’s earnings during Q1 of 2010 also set company wide records. The consensus on Wall St. was that Apple would post EPS of $5.38 on revenue of $24.38 billion. Put differently, Apple’s revenue for the quarter smashed analyst expectations by a whopping $2 billion. When the dust settled, Apple’s EPS for the quarter gone by came in at $6.43 per diluted share, up from $3.67 per diluted share during the year-ago quarter. “We had a phenomenal holiday quarter with record Mac, iPhone and iPad sales,” Steve Jobs explained in a press release. “We are firing on all cylinders and we’ve got some exciting things in the pipeline for this year including iPhone 4 on Verizon which customers can’t wait to get their hands on.” Apple truly is firing on all cylinders, and record breaking iPhone and Mac sales seem to be leading the charge. Mac sales during the quarter gone by increased by 23% with Apple selling 4.13 million Macs. And despite all of the controversy surrounding the iPhone 4 antenna, iPhone sales checked in at a record breaking 16.24 million units, a 86% increase in sales from the same quarter a year-ago. As for the iPad, Apple sold 7.33 million units of its popular tablet device during the most recent quarter. Not surprisingly, iPod sales were down 7% from the same quarter a year-ago, with the company selling 19.45 million units. The iPod Touch, however, continues to pick up steam and remains the only iPod model to actually see an increase in sales from last year’s quarter (27%). The iPod Touch now accounts for over 50% of all iPod sales and Apple made a point to note during its earnings conference call that the iPod remains the most popular music player in nearly every country. Looking ahead to Q2 of 2011, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer noted that the company anticipates revenue of $22 billion and EPS of $4.90. On Monday, Apple announced that Steve Jobs would be taking a medical leave of absence from the company and Apple’s share price took an expected hit when the market opened on Tuesday. Over the course of the day, however, Apple shares inched higher and were given a strong push in after hours trading when Apple posted its earnings results. Apple shares are now trading in the $343 range.
