6 ms·

Apple Reports Q4 Results, $108B in annual revenue, $26B in earnings

47 points by acak 15y ago

mpakes 15y ago
To me, the biggest news here is the 1QFY12 guidance of $37 billion. Guidance of 30% above their best recorded quarter ever. Wow.
- jcdavis 15y ago
  Yes, a monster guidance. And remember this is Apple's estimate, which is has always been a lowball recently (even for this quarter, which was a little disappointing). $40B is definitely possible. Certainly the iPhone sales this quarter weren't that great, but given the circumstances (most people knew the 4s/5 was coming), as well the 4s sold 4 million units on its opening weekend (almost 1/4th of all of last quarter's sales), I don't think it was that bad at all. Obvious disclaimer: long AAPL, may buy more tomorrow
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - kprobst 15y ago
    Lowballing quarterly earnings seems to have been a Jobs thing. With Cook on the saddle I'm guessing this will be the pattern going forward.
- chugger 15y ago
  Yeah $37 billion guidance. guidance for the previous quarter was only $25 billion. holy crap.
  - Steko 15y ago
    iPads and Pods are always huge in holiday quarter plus the 4S rollout.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
- acak 15y ago
  You're right. I just didn't include the guidance in the story title so it wouldn't sound like an ad for going long on the stock.
- ChuckMcM 15y ago
  Pretty hard to comprehend. Not only are the results stellar by pretty much any measure but they make Google's quarter look sluggish which is saying something. Very impressive.
phil 15y ago
Gross margin was down 1.5% over last quarter. Anyone want to guess what lower margin products they sold more of? I'd guess Macbook Airs, but there are certainly other contenders.
- chugger 15y ago
  You don't compare numbers against the previous quarter, you compare numbers against the same quarter, the previous year. Apple's gross margin this quarter was 40.3 percent, compared to 36.9 percent in the year-ago quarter
  - Steko 15y ago
    That's not always accurate, Apple's Q4 2011 and Q3 2011 are fine to compare here, the product mix particularly phones and ipads shipped are much closer then Q4 2011 and Q4 2010.
    - chugger 15y ago
      timing of product launches doesn't matter. In finance investors always compare year over year to evaluate the performance of their investments.
      - Steko 15y ago
        He's not evaluating the performance of an investment, he's asking why the margin is different which is generally a product mix question.
        chugger 15y ago
        same thing applies. year-over-year comparisons are more accurate.
        Steko 15y ago
        Not always and certainly not in this case.
buckwild 15y ago
The price seems to be dropping. $422.24 at close today and $393.74 after hours (@3pm pacific 10/18/2011)... http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:AAPL http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:AAPL
- forrestthewoods 15y ago
  Analyst expectations missed. http://www.cnbc.com/id/44908357 http://www.cnbc.com/id/44908357 Seems likely due to iPhone 4S shipping later than their normal cycle? That'd also be why guidance for the next quarter is so high I imagine?
  - mikeryan 15y ago
    Apple always lowballs guidance (note Apple beat its own guidance by about 2B I believe) so its up to the street to set their own view of what Apple should be making (on top of Apple's estimations). Of course they're just guessing based on past results so its way less accurate. Its a bit of Apple's fault however. They're noted for low balling revenue guidance which is why the street likes to tack a few billion on whatever Apple says.
- X-Istence 15y ago
  Give it a week, it will be back to where it was and more.
krobertson 15y ago
I am curious if the expectations had taken into account the slipped release. There is probably no doubt the slipped release hurt them, but typically, the new iPhone comes out June/July and probably fuels a large portion of their Q4. With the 4S just coming out, it will fuel their Q1 instead. Additionally, if they did try to account for the late release, they probably had more people than expected holding off for the new phone. That could prove beneficial in Q1. Most of the articles call out that the dip in expectations will likely be short lived, pointing to the sales in the first days of the release.
DavidSJ 15y ago
The headline could plausibly, and amusingly, be: "Apple Disappoints With 52% Year Over Year Profit Growth"
- lefthem 15y ago
  Note that apple, which has >50% YoY growth, is trading about about 16.5 P/E (ttm). Stock dropped about 6% after hours. As a point of reference, Yahoo also announced results ( revenues down 5% YoY), has a P/E of 17.5, and it's stock ROSE after-hours. Boggles the mind.
  - apaprocki 15y ago
    I'm not convinced the stock shift is fully explained by "missed estimates" as you notice here. The highest open interest was piled into the ~390 puts for most of the day and look where the stock wound up. This is relevant because the monthly options all expire on Friday. Earnings hasn't happened before options expiration in a while so there could be a lot of institutional play in the market to zero in a particular price to prevent options exposure in both calls/puts. Keep in mind only 0.95% of AAPL stock is owned by individuals[1]. [1] Checked holdings on a Bloomberg earlier out of curiosity. EDIT: Some related theory: http://www.aaplpain.com/Site/Home/Entries/2011/10/18_Apple_Option_Pain__Step_1__Acceptance.html http://www.aaplpain.com/Site/Home/Entries/2011/10/18_Apple_O...
alexknight 15y ago
I only have two words to say: Truly staggering.
Jayasimhan 15y ago
Apple missed streets expectations. Please sell your stocks... so I can buy :)
37prime 15y ago
Anything Apple does these days always disappoint analysts. Well, most analysts are overpaid for what they do anyway. Financial Analysts has been underestimating Apple since 2004. This time they're pumping up the expectations. Overall it is still a spectacular Quarter for Apple.
- seven_stones 15y ago
  I just read about how the stock tumbled because the results were less than expected. "Highest September Quarter Revenue and Earnings Ever" and it's a disappointment. This is like the market equivalent of "eh, her knees are too pointy". Scumbag stock market. Why not forget IPOs and stay private?
  - function_seven 15y ago
    The reason the stock fell is because the expected results were built into the price. So when the numbers didn't meet the market's expectations, the price adjusted accordingly. The expectations have nothing to do with where they were last year. Rather, they're built on forecasts of how the market (and Apple) think they will do in the future.
    - seven_stones 15y ago
      As already mentioned in this thread, expectations of how it WILL do for this quarter are astronomical. Sales numbers that are already in back this up. Also see here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3128143 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3128143 So, no, this shift is not explained by how anyone thinks Apple will do in the near future.
      - function_seven 15y ago
        Good link. I'm not sophisticated enough to consider those aspects. I was really only referring to the spectre of beating YoY numbers by %50, and it still being considered "below expectations"

47 points by acak 15y ago

To me, the biggest news here is the 1QFY12 guidance of $37 billion. Guidance of 30% above their best recorded quarter ever. Wow.

jcdavis 15y ago
Yes, a monster guidance. And remember this is Apple's estimate, which is has always been a lowball recently (even for this quarter, which was a little disappointing). $40B is definitely possible. Certainly the iPhone sales this quarter weren't that great, but given the circumstances (most people knew the 4s/5 was coming), as well the 4s sold 4 million units on its opening weekend (almost 1/4th of all of last quarter's sales), I don't think it was that bad at all. Obvious disclaimer: long AAPL, may buy more tomorrow
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- kprobst 15y ago
  Lowballing quarterly earnings seems to have been a Jobs thing. With Cook on the saddle I'm guessing this will be the pattern going forward.
chugger 15y ago
Yeah $37 billion guidance. guidance for the previous quarter was only $25 billion. holy crap.
- Steko 15y ago
  iPads and Pods are always huge in holiday quarter plus the 4S rollout.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
acak 15y ago
You're right. I just didn't include the guidance in the story title so it wouldn't sound like an ad for going long on the stock.
ChuckMcM 15y ago
Pretty hard to comprehend. Not only are the results stellar by pretty much any measure but they make Google's quarter look sluggish which is saying something. Very impressive.

phil 15y ago

Gross margin was down 1.5% over last quarter. Anyone want to guess what lower margin products they sold more of? I'd guess Macbook Airs, but there are certainly other contenders.

chugger 15y ago
You don't compare numbers against the previous quarter, you compare numbers against the same quarter, the previous year. Apple's gross margin this quarter was 40.3 percent, compared to 36.9 percent in the year-ago quarter
- Steko 15y ago
  That's not always accurate, Apple's Q4 2011 and Q3 2011 are fine to compare here, the product mix particularly phones and ipads shipped are much closer then Q4 2011 and Q4 2010.
  - chugger 15y ago
    timing of product launches doesn't matter. In finance investors always compare year over year to evaluate the performance of their investments.
    - Steko 15y ago
      He's not evaluating the performance of an investment, he's asking why the margin is different which is generally a product mix question.
      - chugger 15y ago
        same thing applies. year-over-year comparisons are more accurate.
        Steko 15y ago
        Not always and certainly not in this case.

buckwild 15y ago

The price seems to be dropping. $422.24 at close today and $393.74 after hours (@3pm pacific 10/18/2011)... http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:AAPL http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:AAPL

forrestthewoods 15y ago
Analyst expectations missed. http://www.cnbc.com/id/44908357 http://www.cnbc.com/id/44908357 Seems likely due to iPhone 4S shipping later than their normal cycle? That'd also be why guidance for the next quarter is so high I imagine?
- mikeryan 15y ago
  Apple always lowballs guidance (note Apple beat its own guidance by about 2B I believe) so its up to the street to set their own view of what Apple should be making (on top of Apple's estimations). Of course they're just guessing based on past results so its way less accurate. Its a bit of Apple's fault however. They're noted for low balling revenue guidance which is why the street likes to tack a few billion on whatever Apple says.
X-Istence 15y ago
Give it a week, it will be back to where it was and more.

krobertson 15y ago

I am curious if the expectations had taken into account the slipped release. There is probably no doubt the slipped release hurt them, but typically, the new iPhone comes out June/July and probably fuels a large portion of their Q4. With the 4S just coming out, it will fuel their Q1 instead. Additionally, if they did try to account for the late release, they probably had more people than expected holding off for the new phone. That could prove beneficial in Q1. Most of the articles call out that the dip in expectations will likely be short lived, pointing to the sales in the first days of the release.

DavidSJ 15y ago

The headline could plausibly, and amusingly, be: "Apple Disappoints With 52% Year Over Year Profit Growth"

lefthem 15y ago
Note that apple, which has >50% YoY growth, is trading about about 16.5 P/E (ttm). Stock dropped about 6% after hours. As a point of reference, Yahoo also announced results ( revenues down 5% YoY), has a P/E of 17.5, and it's stock ROSE after-hours. Boggles the mind.
- apaprocki 15y ago
  I'm not convinced the stock shift is fully explained by "missed estimates" as you notice here. The highest open interest was piled into the ~390 puts for most of the day and look where the stock wound up. This is relevant because the monthly options all expire on Friday. Earnings hasn't happened before options expiration in a while so there could be a lot of institutional play in the market to zero in a particular price to prevent options exposure in both calls/puts. Keep in mind only 0.95% of AAPL stock is owned by individuals[1]. [1] Checked holdings on a Bloomberg earlier out of curiosity. EDIT: Some related theory: http://www.aaplpain.com/Site/Home/Entries/2011/10/18_Apple_Option_Pain__Step_1__Acceptance.html http://www.aaplpain.com/Site/Home/Entries/2011/10/18_Apple_O...

alexknight 15y ago

I only have two words to say: Truly staggering.

Jayasimhan 15y ago

Apple missed streets expectations. Please sell your stocks... so I can buy :)

37prime 15y ago

Anything Apple does these days always disappoint analysts. Well, most analysts are overpaid for what they do anyway. Financial Analysts has been underestimating Apple since 2004. This time they're pumping up the expectations. Overall it is still a spectacular Quarter for Apple.

seven_stones 15y ago
I just read about how the stock tumbled because the results were less than expected. "Highest September Quarter Revenue and Earnings Ever" and it's a disappointment. This is like the market equivalent of "eh, her knees are too pointy". Scumbag stock market. Why not forget IPOs and stay private?
- function_seven 15y ago
  The reason the stock fell is because the expected results were built into the price. So when the numbers didn't meet the market's expectations, the price adjusted accordingly. The expectations have nothing to do with where they were last year. Rather, they're built on forecasts of how the market (and Apple) think they will do in the future.
  - seven_stones 15y ago
    As already mentioned in this thread, expectations of how it WILL do for this quarter are astronomical. Sales numbers that are already in back this up. Also see here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3128143 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3128143 So, no, this shift is not explained by how anyone thinks Apple will do in the near future.
    - function_seven 15y ago
      Good link. I'm not sophisticated enough to consider those aspects. I was really only referring to the spectre of beating YoY numbers by %50, and it still being considered "below expectations"