Apple results take the spotlight
By Jessica Mintz |
January 20, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
APPLE Inc's shining holiday-quarter results diverted Wall Street's attention, at least temporarily, from news that CEO Steve Jobs is taking another medical leave of absence.
Investors focused on Apple's success in boosting production of iPads, which happened faster than analysts predicted. Shoppers also bought iPhones as fast as Apple could make them, helping drive the company's fiscal first-quarter net income up 78 percent from the prior year.
Jobs had surgery in 2004 that he said cured him of a rare form of pancreatic cancer. In 2009, Jobs announced a half-year leave during which time he had a liver transplant. This time, Apple did not say whether Jobs is acutely ill again or when it expects him to return.
While some analysts question how long Apple can prolong its run of smash-hit products without Jobs' day-to-day oversight, most agree the gadget maker can keep going apace for the next few years with updates to the iPad, iPhone and other devices already in the pipeline.
"The quarter was remarkable," said Shaw Wu, a Kaufman Bros analyst.
In an interview, Wu said he thinks investors will give Apple more credit for the quarter in the coming days or weeks. As for Jobs' health, he said investors are "not as fixated on it."
Apple's newest product, the iPad tablet computer, went on sale in April and was one of the hottest gifts over the holidays. Apple sold 7.3 million of the touch-screen, keyboard-less gadgets, which people use to surf the Internet, watch movies, play games and, increasingly, get real work done.
That's about a million more than analysts were expecting for the quarter. Wu said Apple was able to ramp up iPad production to meet widespread demand, and executives sounded confident that would continue even as Apple expands iPad sales to 15 more countries in the current quarter.
PC industry analysts said the iPad and the promise of competing tablets that run Microsoft Corp's Windows or Google Inc's Android software are prompting people to hold off buying new laptops. Intel Corp, the largest maker of PC processors, said last week that competition from the iPad was part of what held revenue in each of its major divisions, except for server chips, flat from the third quarter.
Apple ended the quarter with almost no iPhones left in stores, having sold 16.2 million, or 86 percent more of the smartphones than a year ago.
Net income for Apple's fiscal first quarter rose to US$6 billion, or US$6.43 per share, up from US$3.4 billion, or US$3.67 per share, in the same period a year earlier.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast US$5.41 per share for the quarter.
Revenue climbed 71 percent to US$26.7 billion, more than the US$24.3 billion analysts expected. It was US$15.7 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.
For the current quarter that ends in March, Apple said it expects net income of US$4.90 per share on revenue of US$22 billion. According to FactSet data, analysts were currently expecting net income of US$4.48 per share on US$20.9 billion in revenue.
Investors focused on Apple's success in boosting production of iPads, which happened faster than analysts predicted. Shoppers also bought iPhones as fast as Apple could make them, helping drive the company's fiscal first-quarter net income up 78 percent from the prior year.
Jobs had surgery in 2004 that he said cured him of a rare form of pancreatic cancer. In 2009, Jobs announced a half-year leave during which time he had a liver transplant. This time, Apple did not say whether Jobs is acutely ill again or when it expects him to return.
While some analysts question how long Apple can prolong its run of smash-hit products without Jobs' day-to-day oversight, most agree the gadget maker can keep going apace for the next few years with updates to the iPad, iPhone and other devices already in the pipeline.
"The quarter was remarkable," said Shaw Wu, a Kaufman Bros analyst.
In an interview, Wu said he thinks investors will give Apple more credit for the quarter in the coming days or weeks. As for Jobs' health, he said investors are "not as fixated on it."
Apple's newest product, the iPad tablet computer, went on sale in April and was one of the hottest gifts over the holidays. Apple sold 7.3 million of the touch-screen, keyboard-less gadgets, which people use to surf the Internet, watch movies, play games and, increasingly, get real work done.
That's about a million more than analysts were expecting for the quarter. Wu said Apple was able to ramp up iPad production to meet widespread demand, and executives sounded confident that would continue even as Apple expands iPad sales to 15 more countries in the current quarter.
PC industry analysts said the iPad and the promise of competing tablets that run Microsoft Corp's Windows or Google Inc's Android software are prompting people to hold off buying new laptops. Intel Corp, the largest maker of PC processors, said last week that competition from the iPad was part of what held revenue in each of its major divisions, except for server chips, flat from the third quarter.
Apple ended the quarter with almost no iPhones left in stores, having sold 16.2 million, or 86 percent more of the smartphones than a year ago.
Net income for Apple's fiscal first quarter rose to US$6 billion, or US$6.43 per share, up from US$3.4 billion, or US$3.67 per share, in the same period a year earlier.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast US$5.41 per share for the quarter.
Revenue climbed 71 percent to US$26.7 billion, more than the US$24.3 billion analysts expected. It was US$15.7 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.
For the current quarter that ends in March, Apple said it expects net income of US$4.90 per share on revenue of US$22 billion. According to FactSet data, analysts were currently expecting net income of US$4.48 per share on US$20.9 billion in revenue.
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