SAN FRANCISCO, CA – JANUARY 24: Apple products are displayed in the window of an Apple Store on January 24, 2012 in San Francisco, California. Apple will report first quarter earnings today after the closing bell. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Even as some investors question how much longer Apple (AAPL) can keep strutting its spectacular bottom line, red-hot iPhone and iPad sales helped supercharge its first earnings report of 2012 with a breathtaking 118-percent jump in profit, reportedly the largest quarterly revenue by any tech company in history.
The Cupertino company on Tuesday reported earnings of $ 13.06 billion, or $ 13.87 per diluted share, for its first fiscal quarter, which ended Dec. 24. Revenues soared to $ 46.3 billion, up from $ 26.7 billion for the same quarter a year ago, putting Apple on course to become the world’s largest technology company in terms of revenue.
“This is more than spectacular,” said analyst Tim Bajarin with Creative Strategies. “They had a record-setting blowout quarter with incremental upgrades to the iPhone and the Mac. Imagine what 2012 will be like with a new version of the iPhone, the iPad and maybe even an all-new Mac.”
The numbers blew past Wall Street’s projections. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $ 10.07 a share on sales of $ 38.76 billion.
“We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook, who took over from an ailing Steve
Jobs last August just weeks before Jobs died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. “Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.”
Once again, the iPhone was the star of the show, driving Apple revenue to an all-time high even though the iPhone 4S introduced at the start of the quarter was initially criticized as being too similar to its predecessor. The public obviously disagreed, buying more than 37 million iPhones during the quarter, up 128 percent from the one a year earlier.
The iPad played a strong supporting role, with Apple selling 15.43 million of the tablets, a jump of 111 percent from the same period last year. Apple also sold 5.2 million Mac computers in the quarter, a 26-percent increase.
Apple said its gross margin was 44.7 percent, compared to 38.5 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
As Apple sailed into the new calendar year with nearly $ 100 billion in cash, the steady hand of Cook at the helm, and excitement building over rumored releases of a new iPad 3 and iTV, some analysts wondered whether the rivals nipping at Apple’s heels might put a drag on the company’s torrid growth pace.
But in contrast to the previous quarter, when Apple saw its first revenue miss since 2008, Tuesday’s scorecard for the first reporting period to include the new iPhone 4S was stunning.
Apple had $ 127.8 billion in sales during the 2011 calendar year, putting it neck-and-neck with Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) the nation’s largest tech company in terms of sales. CNN reported that Apple is on pace to this year become the biggest technology company in the world, measured by revenue, surpassing current global No. 1 Samsung.
Many analysts think Apple will continue to astonish the world with its performance in coming years.
“This is just a stepping point for it to go another 15 to 20 percent higher than it is now,” said Michael Yoshikami, CEO of YCMNET Advisors, which owns Apple shares, adding that international expansion will drive much of the upside. “The stock is cheap relative to companies like Google (GOOG). It’s a good value, especially considering what a growth trajectory this company is on.”
Apple’s stock gained 25 percent in 2011, adding about $ 77 billion to its market capitalization, and its share price touched an all-time high of $ 431.36 this past week. Traders were giddy on the latest news, sending shares up $ 40 to around $ 460 in after-hours trading — a nearly 10 percent jump.
On the after-earnings conference call with analysts, Apple’s cash holdings became the subject of some tantalizing comments by the company’s executives, who raised the possibility of Apple making some earth-shaking acquisitions in the coming months.
“We are actively discussing uses of our cash balance and don’t have anything specific to announce today,” Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer told the analysts. “In the meantime, we continue to be very disciplined with the cash and are not letting it burn a hole in our pocket.”
Staff writer Jeremy Owens also contributed to this report.
Contact Patrick May at 408-920-5689 or follow him at Twitter.com/patmaymerc
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