Apple Announces Quarterly Earnings, Misses Expectations

Apple yesterday afternoon announced financial results for its fourth fiscal quarter for 2011, which ended September 24. The company posted quarterly revenue of $28.27 billion and quarterly net profit of $6.62 billion, or $7.05 per diluted share. This compares to revenue and net quarterly profit of $20.34 billion and $4.31 billion (or $4.64 per diluted share), respectively, for the same period last year.

Despite the fact that revenue jumped 39 percent to $28.27 billion, Reuters reports that analysts had been expecting earnings of $7.38 per share on revenue of $29.7 billion. The blame for lower-than-expected performance is placed on slow iPhone sales due to the October launch of the iPhone 4S.

For the quarter ended September 24, Apple sold 17.07 million iPhones, a 21 percent growth over the same period in 2010. The company shifted 11.12 million iPads, a 166 percent increase over Q4 2010, and 4.89 million Macs, which represents a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The only product line that saw a decline in sales was the iPod. Apple says the 6.62 million iPods it shifted this past quarter is a 27 percent decline from Q4 2010.

"We are thrilled with the very strong finish of an outstanding fiscal 2011, growing annual revenue to $108 billion and growing earnings to $26 billion," said CEO Tim Cook. "Customer response to iPhone 4S has been fantastic, we have strong momentum going into the holiday season, and we remain really enthusiastic about our product pipeline."

Looking ahead to Apple's first fiscal quarter of 2012, the company is expecting revenue of about $37 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $9.30. Analysts are a little more conservative in their estimates, expecting earnings of $9 per share on revenue of $36.7 billion.