Apple shares surge as it beats guidance and analyst estimates

by Mark Tyson on 24 April 2014, 10:30

Tags: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

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Apple has soundly beat investor analyst expectations and its own guidance to publish a second quarter revenue figure of $45.6 billion. As a result, shares in the Cupertino tech giant have surged overnight – while they suffered a slight drop before the close of play yesterday they are currently up a whopping 7.5 per cent in pre-market trading. Apple also took the opportunity to announce a stock buyback; it will buy back $30 billion of its own stock and raise its quarterly dividend by 8 per cent.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that he was very proud of the results and highlighted the performance of the iPhone and Apple's network of services for helping the most to contribute to the good news. "We're eagerly looking forward to introducing more new products and services that only Apple could bring to market," he added.

The sales of the headlining devices produced by Apple break down and compare as in the table below. It is clear that iPhone sales have surprised analysts and more than compensated for a slowing of the iPad sales rate. Good gains were seen in the Far East including a 26 per cent iPhone sales boost in Japan thanks to a new NTT Docomo  distribution deal. Even so these global iPhone sales figures show a marked decline from the period covering Xmas.

 

Q2 2014

Investor prediction for Q2 2014

Q2 2013

iPhone

43.7 million

38 million

37.4 million

iPad

16.3 million

19.3 million

19.5 million

Mac

4.1 million

4 million

3.9 million

Revenue

$45.6 billion

$43.5 billion

$43.6 billion

 

Looking at other money spinners for Apple, not listed in the table above, we have to highlight the impressive performance of the iTunes store. Its sales were up by $2.6 billion this quarter. Also for comparison's sake, iTunes generated 85 per cent more revenue than Google Play in the most recent quarter. Apple told investors that most of the 800 million iTunes account holders have registered payment cards.

Stock split

Apple has given the OK to a 7-to-1 stock split which will make the shares more affordable and easily tradable by for individual investors. If we take the price now as roughly $560 per share the split will result in a share price of about $80.

Looking forward Apple has issued guidance for its Q3 accounting period and expects to bring in between $36 billion and $38 billion in revenue during this period. The margin it will make on its products is expected to be between 37 and 38 per cent.



HEXUS Forums :: 9 Comments

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I'm going to save all you Hexus bods the trouble:

Blah blah Apple. Blah blah patents. Blah Blah small screen. Blah Steve Jobs. Blah Blah iWatch. Blah Blah Android for me. Blah Blah sheep. Blah blah expensive. Blah blah fanboys.
Jenny_Y8S
I'm going to save all you Hexus bods the trouble:

Blah blah Apple. Blah blah patents. Blah Blah small screen. Blah Steve Jobs. Blah Blah iWatch. Blah Blah Android for me. Blah Blah sheep. Blah blah expensive. Blah blah fanboys.
Do you have anything constructive to say about the news article?
looks like a bright future..
just waiting for the apple washing machine, a washing machine sized silver box with a small white LED and a gentle humm that takes 15 minutes to do a weeks washing, and leaves it clean, smelling nice, and with a hint of apple blossem fragrence…

i can wish…for the other half :p
Assuming the table has incorrectly titled Q2 2014, to mean Q1 2014.

The interesting thing here is how runaway the iPhone sales have been.

The iPad didn't hit guidance revenue, which is funny, because I would say that I thought the iPad brand was stronger, this might well be an effect of the iPad mini. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, 10 inches is small laptop, tablets that are just only a tablet, should be smaller. But maybe this is just me with my consistent views, that the iPad killer is in fact the iPad mini.

It's truly amazing to see that with no new release they've managed to get such good strong sales despite no new model.
I do like the iPad mini and it's great to use and it's probably just a matter of time before I get one. I think I'll wait though, until Q4 this year, when the new model is out and I can compare it to the new Nexus tablet(I heard HTC are making the 2014 model). I have a Windows Phone, a Windows laptop and an XBox 360, so I'm neutral on the iOS vs Android debate! ;)