Apple (AAPL) Beats Street Forecasts !!! Mac Stars

Wall St.’s forecasts for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) were much, much too low. EPS for the September quarter was $1.82. Most analysts had the number pegged closer to $1.74. In the same quarter last year, EPS was $1.26.

Apple’s share rose over 7% after hours to $203.50.

Apple had revenue of $9.87 billion in the most recent quarter, up from $7.9 billion in the same period a year ago. Impressively, gross margins rose from 34.7% to 36.6%.

Extraordinary, Mac sales were a large part of the reason for the outstanding numbers. The Mac is relatively expensive compared with most PCs, so the figure was even more impressive given the economic environment. Apple sold 3.053 million Macs in the quarter. Most analysts thought the number would be closer to 2.8 million.

Apple sold 10.177 million iPods, slightly better than expectations, and 7.367 iPhones, above estimates of 7 million.

Apple said its fiscal first quarter sales covering the current period would be $11.3 billion to $11.6 billion and EPS of $1.70 to $1.78. Analyst consensus is $11.45 billion and $1.91 a share

Douglas A. McIntyre