Despite having turned in a record September quarter Monday, shares in Apple Inc. dropped 5.6% in After Hours trading after the company released those results. The stock was trading at US$299.70, down $18.30 (-5.75%), not quite two hours after the announcement.
Apple turned in record revenue ($20.3 billion), earnings ($4.34 billion), Mac (3.9 million), iPhone (14.1 million), and iPad sales (4.19 million), and Apple guided for revenue of $23 billion for the December quarter, but after-hours traders weren’t having it and pushed the stock down.
For AAPL observers, however, the context is the stock had a major run-up in the weeks leading up to Monday’s announcement, and that’s coupled with the fact that Apple’s after hours trading following an earnings announcement tends to be more exaggerated than the regular session trading that takes place the following day.
To wit: AAPL ended the day on October 4th, 2010 at $278.64 and closed Monday (ahead of the earnings report) at $318.
You can find more detailed coverage of Apple’s conference call with analysts in our live coverage of that call.
*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a small share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.