Apple Beats Fiscal Q4 Earnings Forecasts But Shares Fall On Disappointing Sales Projections

Here’s more proof that the market looks forward. Apple just disclosed earnings for the quarter that ended in September that should delight investors. But shares fell in initial post-market trading based on sales projections for the current quarter that fell short of expectations. In the last quarter Apple generated net income of $7.5B, -8.7% vs last year’s fiscal Q4, on revenues of $37.5B, +4.2%. The top line beat the consensus forecast for $36.8B. Earnings at $8.26 a share also were well ahead of the Street’s prediction of $7.93. But Apple says it expects revenues in the current quarter to come in between $55B and $58B, with a gross margin between 36.5% and 37.5%. That’s pretty much in line with analyst forecasts — but not the hopes of bulls who helped lift the stock price more than 20% over the last three months. As for specific devices, Apple says that it sold 33.8M iPhones in the September quarter (+25.7% vs last year), 14.1M iPads (+0.7%), 4.6M Macs (-6.1%), and 3.5M iPods (-34.5%). CEO Tim Cook applauded Apple’s “strong finish to an amazing year with record fourth quarter revenue” and says he’s “excited to go into the holidays” with refreshed products including the iPhone 5c and 5s, iPad Air, and new MacBook Pros.

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