Apple needed a big report, and it posted it. Huge. The company reported $1.82 versus the $1.42 expected, on $9.87 billion in revenue.
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Apple Earnings
One word: Wow.
And guidance was equally impressive, even for a sandbagger like Apple. The EPS range of $1.70 to $1.78 might have been below the Street's $1.91, but it was nearly as low as what some analysts were whispering.
And that's because the revenue range was *gasp, in line with the Street's $11.4 billion, offering $11.3 billion to $11.6 billion.
For Apple to even offer ballpark guidance like that borders on monumental.
Meantime, individual units were stellar. The 3.05 million Macs sold and 7.4 million iPhones are the most for each category in any quarter, and Apple is actually entering its seasonally strongest quarter now. And the iPod number was certainly no slouch, with Apple selling 10.2 million of them, which was much better than the 9.9 million expected.
Apple's gross margin came in at 36.6 percent. The Street was just shy of 36 percent.
You don't want to gush too much about a company, but with shares up 8 percent on the news, to a new, all-time high in an economy like this one, it's kind of difficult not to marvel. All of sudden, those $250 targets seem reasonable. Kind of like the way those $700 targets seemed reasonable as far as Google is concerned.
There will always be naysayers. But the proof is in the balance sheet. These numbers are simply stunning. Period.
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