Apple Crushes Estimates/Whisper Numbers With 11 Cents Per Share Profit (US$43 Million)

by , 4:50 PM EDT, April 18th, 2001

We are going to give you Apple's PR straight as we work on the Stock Watch and prep for Apple's Q2 Conference Call. The company posted a profit of US$43 million which is 11 cents per share, blowing away estimates of a penny a share. In fact, that crushed the 4 cents per share that WhisperNumber.com has posted. The company has increased their cash holdings to US$4.1 Billion, and also said that 48% of their sales came from the non-US markets. That bodes well for those looking for signs of a European slowdown. Apple's PR, in its entirety:

Apple® (Nasdaq: AAPL - news) today announced financial results for its fiscal 2001 second quarter ended March 31, 2001. For the quarter, the Company posted a net profit of $43 million, or $.12 per diluted share. These results compare to a net profit of $233 million, or $.64 per diluted share, achieved in the year ago quarter. Revenues for the quarter were $1.43 billion, down 26 percent from the year ago quarter, and gross margins were 26.9 percent, compared to 28.2 percent in the year ago quarter. International sales accounted for 48 percent of the quarter's revenues.

The quarter's results included a $3 million net favorable impact from non-recurring items including an after-tax gain of $89 million resulting from the sale of approximately 23 million shares of ARM Holdings plc. and an after tax charge of $86 million related to the write down of certain equity investments. Without these non-recurring items, the Company's net profit for the quarter would have been $40 million, or $.11 per diluted share.

Apple shipped 751 thousand Macintosh® units during the quarter.

"Apple returned to profitability in this tough economic climate by launching several innovative new products," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "During the quarter we shipped the Titanium PowerBook G4, widely regarded as a major breakthrough in notebook computers; Mac OS X, the world's most advanced operating system; iTunes, the easiest way to create a music library on your computer and 'burn' custom music CDs; and iDVD and SuperDrive, our revolutionary software and drive that together enable users to create and 'burn' their own custom DVDs. It was a great new product quarter, and there's still more to come."

"We feel very good about delivering solid profitability while reaching our goal of 4 weeks of channel inventory ahead of schedule,'' said Fred Anderson, Apple's CFO. "Our balance sheet remains very strong, with over $4.1 billion in cash. We now expect to generate $3.2 to $3.4 billion in revenues in the second half of the fiscal year, and we are targeting sequential improvements in both revenues and profits in the June and September quarters."

For other stories regarding Apple's stock activity, visit our updated Apple Stock Watch Special Report. You can also check out our Apple Financial Boards, for discussion of AAPL and Apple's financials.

We are providing live coverage of Apple's Conference Call at 2:00 PM PST.

The Mac Observer Spin:

This is an INCREDIBLE quarter for Apple. All eyes are going to be on the next quarter, of course, but it is very important that the company was able to recover so well from the previous quarter. Increasing their cash holdings is also important, especially in the current market. Note that EVERY other PC manufacturer issued earnings warnings for the quarter except IBM. Apple did offer lowered guidance last Fall, but they were the first company to spot/get hit by the slowdown, and they are obviously the first company to deal with it appropriately. We will be offering a full analysis some time tomorrow.