Apple Blows Away Q4 Analysts' Consensus Earnings Estimate by 44 Per Cent with $106 Million Profit

What a quarter! Revenues were up to $2.35B (+37%), gross margins were up to 27% and profits were up to $106M (+141%) as compared with the fourth quarter of last year. Earnings were up to 26 cents per diluted share beating the consensus analysts' estimate of 18 cents by over 44 per cent. For the fiscal year that ended September 30th, Apple reported a net income of $276 million on revenue of $8.28 billion compared to a net income of $69 million on revenue of $6.21 billion in 2003. Apple has moved back up to an $8+ billion company with the highest quarterly revenue in 9 years.

Here is a summary of unit sales by product type:

Mac	Q4 2003	Q4 2004	Per Cent Change
.
iMac/eMac	253	229	-9
iBook	137	238	+74
Power Mac/Xserve	221	156	-29
PowerBook	176	213	+21
iPod	336	2016	+500

There was a small drop in sales of the iMac/eMacs but a large increase in iBook sales and a huge increase in the consumer iPod and iPod Mini. Sales also increased in Apple's professional laptop models but decreased in the Power Mac/Xserve group for a net increase of 6 per cent for computers overall. The decline in iMac and Power Mac sales was expected due to the delayed shipping of the G5 model iMac and constrained G5 CPU supplies.

Other tidbits are that revenues were up in all regional areas, finally including Japan, revenue was up 95% in Apple's retail stores and revenue from music other than iPods was up 600%.

During yesterday afternoon's conference call, Apple noted that the Apple retail stores were profitable, earning a net $18 million. In response to a question about an under $500 Mac, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer deflected the question by stating that Apple had invested in the music business rather than stating the usual no comment on unannounced products. He expects the G5 CPU supply to improve except for the high end 2.5 GHz model which will remain constrained. He also expects Q1 revenue for the current 2005 fiscal year to grow to $2.8-2.9 billion with earnings around 40 cents per diluted share.