Apple's 54% profit jump not good enough for market

Apple has reported its fourth quarter results, with media reporting it has missed earnings forecasts for the first time since 2002.

The company still posted quarterly net profit up 54% to $US6.62 billion, with quarterly revenue rising to $US28.27 billion.

These results compared with net quarterly profit in the fourth quarter of 2010 of $US4.31 billion, with revenue of $US20.34 billion, the company said.

It sold 17.07 million iPhones in the quarter, a 21% unit growth from the same quarter in 2010 (but behind the previous quarter's 20.3 million) and 11.12 million iPads, or 166% unit increase on 2010, and a 20% increase over the previous quarter.

Analysts had expected sales of 20 - 22 million iPhones (apparently not allowing for any slow down as consumers waited for the new iPhone 4S, which sold 4 million over its first three days on sale during the current quarter). 

At last look, Apple's shares (Nasdaq: AAPL) were below $US400 and had dropped 6%.

Apple said it sold 4.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 26% increase on the 2010 fourth quarter results.

There was a 27% decline on the sale of iPods compared with the fourth quarter of 2010, with 6.62 million sold in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook said customer response to the iPhone 4S had been “fantastic”, while reviews of the phone in the media have been mixed.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple had fallen short of expected targets, with analysts on average expecting Apple to earn $US7.22 a share on revenue of $US29.5 billion.

The Journal reported this was the first time Apple had missed such targets since 2002 according to FactSet data, while other outlets reported since 2004.

The Journal’s live blog on the earnings report said the Mac sales were six times the forecast growth of 4%, and were fuelled by MacBook Air and Pro sales, with Asia a prime market.

The results follow momentous times for Apple, with a new chief executive, the death of its co-founder Steve Jobs, the release of the iPhone 4S (and not the iPhone 5), of the newest version of Apple’s operating system, OS X Lion, and the new mobile operating system iOS5.

Outlook
Apple's chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said the first fiscal quarter of 2012, which he said would span 14 weeks rather than 13, revenue of about $US37 billion was expected ($1 billion ahead of expectations) with diluted earnings per share of about $US9.30