Apple's (AAPL) Results Remarkable, Again

Wall St. expected Apple (AAPL) to earn $1.17 a share. It made $1.35. Wall St. expected $8.2 billion in revenue. Apple’s sales hit $8.34 billion.

Wall St. was concerned that the economy would pressure Apple’s margins along with potentially higher component costs. Gross margins rose from 34.9% last year in the June quarter to 36.3% in the most recent period.

As far as Apple is concerned, there is no recession.

Apple sold 2.6 million Macs, about 100,000 higher than most analysts expected. iPod sales hit 10.2 million. Wall St. expected closer to 9.5 million. Even with a market penetration that must already be remarkably higher, the iPod, which put Apple on the road to recovery, is still selling well eight years later.

iPhone sales hit 5.2 million, better than expectations of 4.5 million. Deferred revenue from sales of products was an impressive $12.1 million, up from $7.9 million a year ago.

Looking ahead, Apple’s CFO said “Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2009, we expect revenue in the range of about $8.7 billion to $8.9 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $1.18 to $1.23.” This is a little light compared to Wall St. expectations of $1.30 and revenue of $9.09 billion, but, Apple loves to guide low and beat high.

The market does expect Apple to play games. It expects that Apple would play a few games, so even on the stock was only up 3% to $156.10.

Douglas A. McIntyre