Tag Archives: aapl

After three straight quarters of single-digit sales growth, Wall Street is starting to realize that Apple (AAPL) is no longer a growth company. Apple  (AAPL) late Monday delivered record quarterly revenue of $57.6 billion for its fiscal Q1. “No technology company has ever generated that much revenue in a single quarter,” Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said on a conference call with analysts. But Apple is running into the law of large numbers. Sales rose 6% year over year in the December quarter, following a 4% rise in the September quarter and 1% in the June quarter. Oppenheimer said Apple’s Q1 revenue would have been up 10% if not for three factors: foreign exchange head winds, declines in iPod sales and higher revenue deferral rates from iOS devices and Macs. Those factors negatively impacted revenue by $2.5 billion, he said. Apple’s net income for the quarter ended Dec. 28 was $13.07 billion, flat compared with the year-earlier quarter. Apple’s earnings per share rose for the first time in five quarters, but only because of the company’s aggressive stock buyback program. Apple earned $14.50 a share, up 5%. Apple’s revenue and EPS both beat Wall Street’s targets. But Apple’s iPhone unit sales and March-quarter guidance were lighter than expected, as IBD reported. On a conference call Monday, Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes asked Apple CEO Tim Cook point blank: “Are you still a growth company?” Reitzes noted that Apple’s March-quarter guidance implied a decline in revenue “and you haven’t done that in forever.”