Apple Inc. (AAPL) Profits Rise 25%, But Still Short Of Estimates

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced its Q4 earnings, the company reports a net profit of $8.2 billion, and $8.67 earnings per share, while Gross margin was 40% in comparison to 40.3% in the year-ago quarter.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) Profits Rise 25%, But Still Short Of Estimates

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s announcement also marked the close of the financial year 2012 for the iPhone maker, with company’s fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $36 billion.

Apple’s September quarter ended with the launch of the new iPhone 5, and after breaking all records, within the first few days in preorders, the company faced a serious bottleneck in material supply, for the manufacture of its new device. This prompted the company to postpone some of the scheduled product launches in some parts of the world, with a sizeable number pushed to the December quarter.

The iPads business unit registered a significant growth, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) sold 14.0 million iPads during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. While Apple sold 5.3M iPods, a 19% unit decline from the last year quarter.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) sold 4.9 million Macs during the quarter, a 1 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.

These figures missed estimates laid out by analysts for the company, causing somewhat of a small panic. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares were halted in after hours trading, and futures on the tech market fell considerably. The S&P futures dropped by 8.2 points, while the Dow Jones plunged by 66 points. The NASDAQ 100 lost 31 points in the aftermath of the earnings reports.

It seems that many analysts had higher expectations than the tech giant was able to meet this time. However, the company has a strong brand and equally strong product base to push it into FY2013. We will have to wait and see how investors react when the market reopens tomorrow morning, after news of the missed earnings forecast.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will be providing the live stream of its Q4 2012 conference call at 2:00 p.m. PDT on Oct. 25, 2012. You can watch it here.

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