Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) earnings dropped this afternoon after the market closed on Wall Street. The Californian smartphone maker showed earnings per share of $8.26 for the three month period on revenue totaling $37.5 billion. On today’s market shares in the company trended up and finished the day selling for $529.88.
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In the run-up to the release of this report, analysts following Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) were looking for earnings per share of $7.90 and revenue of $36.8 billion. In the same quarter, which Apple records as the fourth of its financial year, of 2012 the company showed earnings per share of $8.67 on revenue of $36 billion.
Apple’s earnings
There are a couple of big numbers involved in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) earnings reports that investors, and technology fans, tend to be mad to get their hands on. For the three months period Apple reported that it had shipped 33.8 million iPhones. The company announced that the number would be at the upper end of guidance when it revealed first weekend stats for the iPhone 5s.
iPhone sales for the quarter are a combination of sales of the company’s new offerings as well as its older phones. The new iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s were only available for a little over a week at the end of the quarter. Apple said that it shipped 14.1 iPads in the quarter.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) recorded a gross margin of $37% for the three months. Analysts have been wondering what the effect of the iPhone 5c will be on the company’s gross margin, but today’s report makes it a little difficult to figure that out. Those analysts will be working hard to estimate the margin on the device.
Apple’s performance
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares have been pretty flat over the year so far, massively underperforming the wider indices, and losing a small amount of value. Investors seem unsure about the company’s prospects in the years ahead, and it is eating into growth in value.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) executives will host a conference call at 5PM EST in order to discuss today’s earnings. The company’s investors and analysts will be curious about the firm’s guidance for 2014, as well as its share buyback.
