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Apple earnings fall short of expectations: is Apple in trouble?

T

thermal

Member
Apple announced its Q4 and annual earnings today, and for the first time in years, they did not meet expectations.

Apple earned $6.62 billion in profit on revenue of $28.2 billion (up from $20.3 billion year over year). They are currently sitting on $84 billion in cash. Conservative forecasts for next quarter are $37 billion in revenue and $9 billion in profits. Apple sold 17 million iPhones last quarter, and gross margins remain around 40%.

Shares of Apple are down 7% due to the disappointing results.

"There's no question this was a transition quarter ahead of the 4S," said WP Stewart portfolio manager Michael Walker. "With the early pace of iPhone 4S sales, my guess is that disappointment is relatively short-lived."

"I'm not going to call Q3 a throwaway quarter for iPhones, but it was definitely a transition.

Apple blames iPhone rumors for disappointing results | Reuters

The company's sales for its full fiscal year, which ended Sept. 24, were $108.2 billion -- ahead of the $65.2 billion Apple raked in last year, but short of the $109.5 billion Wall Street forecast.

Apple sales top $100 billion, but fall short of estimates - Oct. 18, 2011

Do you agree that, thanks to Android and other strong competition, Apple is in trouble?
 
Only $6.62 billion in profits in one quarter? That's horrible. I predict this time next year that Apple will be dead. Might as well stick a fork in them now.
 
No doubt without Jobs at the helm Apple will start a decline in the near future. Are they in trouble at this moment? Naw, they have plenty of following left over not to mention cash. It's going to take at least a decade before they get into any kind of trouble.
 
"The company's sales for its full fiscal year, which ended Sept. 24, were $108.2 billion -- ahead of the $65.2 billion Apple raked in last year, but short of the $109.5 billion Wall Street forecast."

Only 108.2 from a forecasted 109.5 BILLION, yeah theyre in trouble alright......
 
It sounds like it was iPhone sales that were down since it years past there's always been a huge iPhone launch in July, whereas this year it was pushed back. Given that Apple announced they sold 4 million iPhone 4S' in 3 days (doubling their previous record set by the iPhone 4 last year) I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no, they're not in trouble. Not by a long shot.
 
also people were expecting a new phone model to be something major so many that were eligible sat and waited for it. I'm eligible for an upgrade as well but I'm actually very happy with my galaxy S phone and gingerbread.

No reason to rush out and get a new one until something so awesome comes out that i have to have it or i break my phone somehow.

Since the new iphone4s hardware matches closely some of the best android phones right now those running 3g/3gs were ready to up.

Off target quarter yes, are they hurting because of it, no.
 
Apparently, Apple always seems to fail upwards. I want to be a failure like Apple.

I remember when Megahertz Corporation went public and issued everyone 100 shares of stock. About all most "investors" could talk about why is the stock is a nickle up or down a dime. Up, and we rejoiced. Down, the world was near its end.

I see Apple as a good LT investment and if you are in it for the long haul, these reports are nothing to worry about.
 
Bob Maxey said:
Apparently, Apple always seems to fail upwards. I want to be a failure like Apple.

I remember when Megahertz Corporation went public and issued everyone 100 shares of stock. About all most "investors" could talk about why is the stock is a nickle up or down a dime. Up, and we rejoiced. Down, the world was near its end.

I see Apple as a good LT investment and if you are in it for the long haul, these reports are nothing to worry about.
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I would love to be able to rake in $6.6 billion in profits and be considered a failure for doing so. I would be so sad as I drove off in my platinum plated Ferrari to my mansion made entirely of gold and would cry myself to sleep on my bed made of money. A true American tragedy. Times are hard for everyone.
 
Clayton1 said:
"The company's sales for its full fiscal year, which ended Sept. 24, were $108.2 billion -- ahead of the $65.2 billion Apple raked in last year, but short of the $109.5 billion Wall Street forecast."

Only 108.2 from a forecasted 109.5 BILLION, yeah theyre in trouble alright......
Click to expand...

Here is the interesting bit: Apple is "in trouble" if you believe some people, because Wall Street made a projection that Apple did not meet. I think Apple will earn $115.0 Billion next year. In they only earn $113.0 Billion does that mean they are in trouble or does it mean I made an error?

Not too sure how historically accurate analysts are. Would most analysts have (or perhaps some did?) have predicted Apple's amazing success?
 
They're not only inaccurate, they disagree with one another. You can find a consensus at times, and over the long run they can claim some success in their predictions, but I literally don't bank on their yammerings.

Plus they nitpick. Remember this from this past July?:

"Amazon reported that sales climbed to $9.91 billion—a 51 percent increase over the same period last year, when sales were at $6.57 billion—beating Wall Street’s projection of $9.38 billion."

It's only a few million dollars in projected billions (the gain was for real, of course), but it was enough to make people feel good about their Amazon dealings, etc.
 
The news is only bad for investors, who had expected a certain return on investment (ROI). Remember, investors are paying a very high price for Apple stock, so if it doesn't go up enough (by percentage), those investors will feel like they wasted time. They could have spent the same amount of money on another company that grew (again by percentage) more.
 
Bob Maxey said:
Apparently, Apple always seems to fail upwards. I want to be a failure like Apple.

I remember when Megahertz Corporation went public and issued everyone 100 shares of stock. About all most "investors" could talk about why is the stock is a nickle up or down a dime. Up, and we rejoiced. Down, the world was near its end.

I see Apple as a good LT investment and if you are in it for the long haul, these reports are nothing to worry about.
Click to expand...

Ah how quickly we forget. Unless they find a new steve jobs, thier going to stagnate and crumble just like last time. Thats the problem when you build your product as a fashion accessory. When the person with the "vision" is gone, theres no way to keep up with the trends.

Steve Jobs was, and always will be Apples greatest assett. Once his roadmap is dried up its going to be interesting to see what happens.
 
IOWA said:
Steve Jobs was, and always will be Apples greatest assett. Once his roadmap is dried up its going to be interesting to see what happens.
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Well, if he was as beloved in company as he was publicly, there will be efforts to carry on his vision, maybe even his legacy and style as far as innovation.
 
Is apple in trouble now? No they are not but now with the death of Jobs. Apple is on the edge of a cliff. One thing I notice as I am sure everyone else has seen. When people talks about how great apple products are. Its more of Look at what Steve Jobs came up with this time. Steve jobs is apple. Now people will be worried with Jobs death will apple products fall short and suck. Thats the problem when you place a person so high on a pedestal. People looks at the person more then the company. Jobs was the head and Apple is the body. Cut the head off and the body dies. So I say lets look at apple this time next year and the where they stand but I believe they will start losing steam and their advancing tech will slow down. Look at the iphone 4s. How many obvious ripoffs did apple "borrow" from the android os? Like flynn said the slime didnt even change the name man lol. Seems like apple went from predator to scavenger.
 
Bob Maxey said:
Here is the interesting bit: Apple is "in trouble" if you believe some people, because Wall Street made a projection that Apple did not meet. I think Apple will earn $115.0 Billion next year. In they only earn $113.0 Billion does that mean they are in trouble or does it mean I made an error?

Not too sure how historically accurate analysts are. Would most analysts have (or perhaps some did?) have predicted Apple's amazing success?
Click to expand...

To be completely fair, Apple has met Street predictions every quarter since 2002 I think. They did meet their own in-house predictions, but those are notoriously conservative.
 
EarlyMon said:
A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking [about] real money.
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What a coincidence, I read that quote today in my "Mathematics of Investment and Credit" by S. Broverman. (The quote itself is by Everett Dirksen though.) It's among other interesting citations, such as "The safest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it in your pocket." :p

About the topic at hand, I'm sure Apple will do fine for quite a while.
 
Dark Jedi said:
Is apple in trouble now? No they are not but now with the death of Jobs. Apple is on the edge of a cliff. One thing I notice as I am sure everyone else has seen. When people talks about how great apple products are. Its more of Look at what Steve Jobs came up with this time. Steve jobs is apple. Now people will be worried with Jobs death will apple products fall short and suck. Thats the problem when you place a person so high on a pedestal. People looks at the person more then the company. Jobs was the head and Apple is the body. Cut the head off and the body dies. So I say lets look at apple this time next year and the where they stand but I believe they will start losing steam and their advancing tech will slow down. Look at the iphone 4s. How many obvious ripoffs did apple "borrow" from the android os? Like flynn said the slime didnt even change the name man lol. Seems like apple went from predator to scavenger.
Click to expand...

I think the big thing will be to see what the next report says. If the death of Jobs and the iPhone 4S hurt Apple, you'll be seeing it then. I do agree that people may have been to overly focused on him, but that was his appeal as a salesman. I think something that Apple needs to focus on is finding someone to be their new spokesperson with a great deal of charisma. I'm sure Jobs gave them some sort of plan to follow for the next few years or even a basic formula.
 
Jobs is once in a lifetime find. They will never find another person that could come close. Because whoever they find that person will be compared to Jobs and will never get out of that mans shadow. You can say he was apple.
 
One bad quarter isn't going to make Apple bankrupt. If it continues then things will really be in the toilet.
 
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