Consumer Electronics
Apple Blowout, Margins Still Sinking (AAPL, IAH, QQQQ, XLK, QLD, IYW)
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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has managed a huge surprise on earnings today. Steve Jobs and friends posted earnings of $4.64 EPS and a record of $20.34 billion in revenues. Thomson Reuters has estimates of $4.06 EPS and $18.86 billion in revenues versus $4.03 and $18.72 billion in revenues just at the end of last week. The company’s prior guidance was about $3.44 EPS and about $18 billion. This was an upside blowout on the surface, the question is whether the margin mix and individual unit sales mixes were enough to keep the bulls alive at all-time high share prices.
As far as guidance, Apple is looking for about $4.80 EPS and revenues of about $23 billion. The consensus from Thomson Reuters for the following quarterly report is $4.99 EPS and $22.06 billion in revenues. For Apple, estimates had risen and we gave a full Apple analyst outlook layout featuring all of the most recent key research calls.
There are a couple of things to highlight here. First are margins. Gross margin was a bit low at 36.9%, down from last quarter’s 39.1% and last year’s 41.8%. International sales are taking away a US-centric focus from the company now and in quarters ahead. International sales keep growing as well because international sales were 57% of the quarter’s revenues versus 52% last quarter. The 4.19 million iPads is a great feat, although some were expecting as many as 4.5 million.
INDIVIDUAL PRODUCT GAINS:
The translation here is over $4 billion in after-tax earnings. Steve Jobs left a door open for more hype throughout the last 70 or so days of the year when he noted, “We still have a few surprises left for the remainder of this calendar year.”
As a reminder Apple has the following weighting on each key ETF:
Apple shares closed up 1% at $318.00 and the stock hit a new all-time high of $319.00 today. The market cap at the close of trading was roughly $290.5 billion. Apple shares were halted and the first resumption time we have is 4:50 AM EST.
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