After the death of Steve Jobs, everything seemed to be going swimmingly for ApplePatent victories against Samsung and HTC in courts around the world, and above all, booming sales of the new iPhone 4S in the first weekend of its release in the US and other countries. However, the initial financial results have disappointed expectations: although fourth-quarter profit rose 54% and sales were strong, the figures still fell short of analysts' forecasts.
For this reason The stock fell yesterday in the after-hours trading on Wall Street, quickly losing 7%. at $393 per share, after closing the session modestly higher at $422,24 per share, near its all-time high. In the quarter, Apple reported $6,62 billion in earnings, $7,05 a share, up from $4,31 billion, or $4,64 a share, in the same period last year. The turnover increased by 39% to 28,27 billion dollars (63% derived from international sales), while analysts expected profits of $7,39 per share on $29,69 billion in business.
In the three months ending in September they were 17,1 million iPhones sold, 21% more than a year earlier, but 16% less than in the third quarter (according to the company, the drop is also due to the fact that there were persistent rumors about the arrival of the new model). The results do not include the record sales (over 4 million in the first three days of sales) of iPhone 4S, the latest model presented by Apple and arrived in stores last week. In addition, 11,1 million iPads, 4,9 million Macintosh computers and 6,6 million iPods were sold, down 27 percent.
For its fiscal first quarter, Apple expects earnings of $9,30 per share on revenue of $36,72 billion, while analysts are expecting earnings of $9,01 per share on revenue of $36,72 billion.
