SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 22 — Apple’s earnings report today leapt ahead of analysts’ already optimistic expectations. The company posted record Macintosh sales numbers for its fiscal fourth quarter, showing that the company is climbing into the league of the dominant personal computer makers, Hewlett-Packard and Dell.
The company reported quarterly profits of $904 million, or $1.01 a share, up from $542 million, or 62 cents, in the same quarter a year ago, an increase of 67 percent. Analysts had predicted profit of 85 cents a share. Sales rose to $6.22 billion from $4.84 billion. Gross margin also surged, to 33.6 percent from 29.2 percent a year ago. But it was the absolute number of Macintosh sales that caused the company’s stock to shoot up more than 6 percent in after-hours trading.
Apple said it sold 2.16 million Macintosh computers during the quarter. The market research firm Dataquest estimated last week that it had sold 1.3 million computers, and I.D.C. put the figure at 1.1 million. Dell sold 5 million computers and H.P. sold 4.3 million in the same period, according to the I.D.C. report.
Source: NYTimes.com