Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is scheduled to release fiscal fourth-quarter earnings after the closing bell on Tuesday, October 19, 2010. Analysts, on average, expect the company to report earnings of $3.98 per share on revenue of $18.56 billion. In the year-ago period, the company posted earnings of $2.77 per share on revenue of $9.87 billion.
Apple Inc., together with subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets personal computers, mobile communication devices, and portable digital music and video players, as well as sells various related software, services, peripherals, and networking solutions.
In the preceding second-quarter, the Cupertino, California-based company's net income was $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per share, compared to $1.83 billion, or $2.01 per share, in the prior-year quarter. Revenue jumped 61% to $15.7 billion from $9.734 billion in the same quarter last year. Analysts, on average, expected the company to report earnings of $3.11 per share on revenue of $14.75 billion. The company sold 3.47 million Macintosh computers during the third quarter, up 33% from the year-ago quarter. Sales of the company's iPod music players slipped 8% to 9.41 million units in the third quarter, while IPhone sales surged 61% to 8.4 million units.
For the fiscal fourth-quarter, the company expects to report earnings of $3.44 per share on revenue of $18 billion. The company is famously conservative when it comes to guidance.
Apple continues to make innovative devices which appeal to consumers in a big way. The company is expected to post strong profit and revenues in the latest quarter, benefiting from the sales of its tablet computer iPad as well as the latest version of its wildly popular smartphone, iPhone 4. The iPhone 4, which went on sale in the US and UK in June, was launched in 17 more countries on July 30. The company made its iPhone 4 handset available for sale in China starting September 25.
Late in July, Apple updated its all-in-one iMac line with the latest Intel Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processors and powerful new graphics. In addition, Apple introduced a new Mac Pro line with up to 12 processing cores. The company also unveiled a new 27-inch LED Cinema Display with 2560 x 1440 resolution and 60% more screen real estate than the 24-inch LED Cinema Display.
At its annual music event, Apple introduced a revised iPod line, a compact cloud-based Apple TV set-top box, next version of its iTunes software and service and a brand-new music-oriented social network called Ping.
Early in September, Apple Inc. announced that it has relaxed all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code.
In terms of stock performance, Apple shares have gained nearly 38% since the beginning of the year.
Disclosure: Author doesn't own any of the stocks discussed here.
