Apple Beats In Q3 With $35.3B In Revenue, $6.9B In Profit, $7.47 EPS, But Posts Another YOY Earnings Decline
Apple has just released its fiscal Q3 2013 earnings — it reported $35.3 billion in revenue (slightly up from $35 billion in the year-ago quarter) along with $6.9 billion in quarterly net profit (down from $8.8 billion in the year-ago quarter), representing earnings of $7.47 per share. Similarly to Q2 earnings, Apple posted a year-over-year quarterly earnings decline (down from EPS of $9.32).
Apple is still a money making machine, but the company’s growth has slowed. Recently, the Cupertino-based company has tweaked its release cycle a bit. Almost the entire product line was refreshed over the last three months of 2012, pumping sales for Q1 2013 and leaving a void for the rest of the year. The company seems to follow the same pattern this year, aside from the MacBook Air.
According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the consensus among analysts was for Apple to report earnings of $7.28 per share on $34.9 billion in revenue. Fortune expected nearly the same with $34.94 billion in revenue and earnings of $7.29 per share.
“We are especially proud of our record June quarter iPhone sales of over 31 million and the strong growth in revenue from iTunes, Software and Services,” wrote CEO Tim Cook in the earnings release. “We are really excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, and we are laser-focused and working hard on some amazing new products that we will introduce in the fall and across 2014,” he continued.
Over the past few weeks, many analysts reported an industry-wide slowdown in smartphone sales. Apple keeps selling the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S at a lower price, and it could hurt the company’s bottom line. It represents one of Apple’s two current growth drivers with the iPad. That’s why profit is down but revenue still up year over year.
Guidance from its last earnings release forecasted between $33.5 billion and $35.5 billion in revenue and gross margin between 36 percent and 37 percent. While the company used to be shy about its guidance, this time around it was spot on — it probably won’t scare shareholders away.
Guidance for next quarter is revenue between $34 billion and $37 billion with a gross margin between 36 and 37 percent.
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