JANUARY 26, 2010

Apple posted record earnings per share for Q1 of 2010, beats estimate by 26%

On Monday, Apple posted a record earnings per share (EPS) of $3.67, blowing away Wall Street analysts consensus estimate by over 26% when scaled to Apple's amended accounting standards. Revenue was $15.7 billion with a net quarterly profit of $3.4 billion and a 41 percent gross margin, which represents increases over the first quarter of 2009 of 32 percent, 50 percent and 8 percent respectively.

Mac sales were up 33 percent to 3.4 million, iPhone sales were up 100 percent to 8.7 million and iPods were down 8 percent to 21 million, all as compared with the first quarter of 2009. This quarter the desktop sales increase of 70 percent exceeded the portable sales increase of 18 percent, a reversal of recent Mac type performance where portables had led.

All of Apple's four regional operating segments (Americas, Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific) scored increased sales and revenue over the same quarter in 2009, averaging 33 percent in sales and 32 percent in revenue. Apple's retail stores also had increases in sales and revenue of 34 percent and 13 percent respectively.

Apple's forecast for the next quarter's revenue is in the range of $11.0-11.4 billion with earnings per share in the range of $2.06-2.18. Apple's forecasts have been quite conservative in the past.

Tomorrow, Apple will release a new product or products so stay tuned. [Bill Fox]

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