Sales of 4.19 million iPads during its fiscal 2010 fourth quarter helped push Apple to a record $20.34 billion for the quarter.
Investors had been anticipating a great earnings report and had pushed Apple's share price (AAPL) to $318 per share Monday, only two trading days after it cracked the $300 ceiling for the first time ever. But apparently some analysts had expected 5 million iPads to be shipped in the quarter, and the share price plummeted back below $300 in after-hours trading.
In its official press release, Apple said it had a net quarterly profit of $4.31 billion, or $4.64 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $12.21 billion and net quarterly profit of $2.53 billion, or $2.77 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.
Gross margin was 36.9 percent compared to 41.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 57 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
Macs, iPhones Up In Sales, iPods Down
Apple sold 3.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 27 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.
The company sold 14.1 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 91 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.
Apple sold 9.05 million iPods during the quarter, representing an 11 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.
The company also sold 4.19 million iPads during the quarter.
“We are blown away to report over $20 billion in revenue and over $4 billion in after-tax earnings—both all-time records for Apple,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPhone sales of 14.1 million were up 91 percent year-over-year, handily beating the 12.1 million phones RIM sold in their most recent quarter. We still have a few surprises left for the remainder of this calendar year.”
“We’re thrilled with the performance and strength of our business, generating almost $5.7 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $23 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $4.80.”
Apple will provide live streaming of its Q4 2010 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PDT on October 18, 2010. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.
