Apple had a pretty great day today as they announced their earnings for the fourth quarter. Wall Street had been cautious in their estimates of Apple’s potential for the end of 2011. After all, long time CEO and visionary Steve Jobs passed away and the company did not release the iPhone 5 as anticipated. Apple also failed to meet their expectations in Q3, blaming it on the holdout of consumers for the new iPhone.
Apple blew away analysts’ guesses right out of the water by announcing earnings of $46.33 billion (with a B) and a profit of $13.06 billion for its first quarter of the fiscal year 2012. Much higher than what Wall Street had predicted. Selling a whopping 37.04 million iPhones (many the iPhone 4S released just in time for the holidays), 15.43 million iPads, and 5.2 million Macs. Analysts had predicted 30.2 million iPhones, 13.2 million iPads, and about 5 million Macs. Apple did fall short of one estimate; sales of the iPod at 15.4 million came in just under the estimated 15.5 million. This means that Apple sold more than double the number of iPhones and iPads as it did in the same time period as last year.
This represents a big win for a company which has had a bit of a rocky time over the last few months. This also serves to build confidence in the company’s new CEO, Tim Cook, who released a statement saying “we’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs. Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.” Hinting at the possibility that Apple’s best days are not behind it.
Shares soared up $40 steadying in the $455-$460 range in after-hours trading and represented nearly a 10% jump for the company. Not a bad day at all.