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| Apple’s Profits Are Flat, and Stock Drops | Apple’s Profits Are Flat, and Stock Drops |
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| While it would take a crowbar to pry iPhones and iPads out of the hands of their fans, investors have been falling out of love lately with the company that makes them. | While it would take a crowbar to pry iPhones and iPads out of the hands of their fans, investors have been falling out of love lately with the company that makes them. |
| On Wednesday, Apple did not appear to provide a strong enough reason for investors to warm to it again. It said its profits were flat because of higher manufacturing costs, even as revenue rose 18 percent. The results exceeded analysts’ profit forecasts and just missed their revenue estimates. | On Wednesday, Apple did not appear to provide a strong enough reason for investors to warm to it again. It said its profits were flat because of higher manufacturing costs, even as revenue rose 18 percent. The results exceeded analysts’ profit forecasts and just missed their revenue estimates. |
| Apple said revenue from the iPhone jumped 28 percent during the crucial holiday shopping season, when the company’s products fly off store shelves like they do at no other time of the year. | Apple said revenue from the iPhone jumped 28 percent during the crucial holiday shopping season, when the company’s products fly off store shelves like they do at no other time of the year. |
| The results arrived with an unusual level of anticipation, even for a company as high-profile as Apple, because of anxiety among some investors about Apple’s ability to sustain its growth and create new hit products. Apple’s stock has lost about a quarter of its value since September, erasing more than $170 billion of its market value. | The results arrived with an unusual level of anticipation, even for a company as high-profile as Apple, because of anxiety among some investors about Apple’s ability to sustain its growth and create new hit products. Apple’s stock has lost about a quarter of its value since September, erasing more than $170 billion of its market value. |
| The results sent Apple’s stock tumbling 10 percent during after-hours trading. | |
| Apple said its net income for its fiscal first quarter ending Dec. 29 was $13.1 billion, or $13.81 a share, compared with $13.1 billion, or $13.87 a share, in the same period a year earlier. | Apple said its net income for its fiscal first quarter ending Dec. 29 was $13.1 billion, or $13.81 a share, compared with $13.1 billion, or $13.87 a share, in the same period a year earlier. |
| The company’s revenue was $54.5 billion, up from $46.33 billion a year ago. | The company’s revenue was $54.5 billion, up from $46.33 billion a year ago. |
| Those results compared to the average earnings estimate of $13.44 and average revenue estimate of $54.73 billion from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Apple itself had previously told Wall Street to expect earnings of $11.75 a share and revenue of $52 billion, though the company has a long history of low-balling its own financial forecasts — which are then ignored by analysts. | Those results compared to the average earnings estimate of $13.44 and average revenue estimate of $54.73 billion from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Apple itself had previously told Wall Street to expect earnings of $11.75 a share and revenue of $52 billion, though the company has a long history of low-balling its own financial forecasts — which are then ignored by analysts. |
| “Sentiment has turned super-pessimistic on Apple, where they’ve gone from being able to do no wrong to suddenly being able to do no right,” said Rob Cihra, an analyst at Evercore Partners. “I tend to think the company’s momentum is a heck of a lot more solid than people are concerned about.” | “Sentiment has turned super-pessimistic on Apple, where they’ve gone from being able to do no wrong to suddenly being able to do no right,” said Rob Cihra, an analyst at Evercore Partners. “I tend to think the company’s momentum is a heck of a lot more solid than people are concerned about.” |
| Mr. Cihra said Apple’s iPhone and iPad sales missed some of the most optimistic forecasts, but “all in, it was a pretty darned good quarter.” | Mr. Cihra said Apple’s iPhone and iPad sales missed some of the most optimistic forecasts, but “all in, it was a pretty darned good quarter.” |
| One factor that hurt comparisons between Apple’s most recent holiday quarter and the prior one was that its 2012 quarter was a week shorter. | One factor that hurt comparisons between Apple’s most recent holiday quarter and the prior one was that its 2012 quarter was a week shorter. |
| Analysts were especially worried, headed into the holiday quarter, about Apple’s profit margins, which the company had warned would decline as a result of a near total overhaul of the company’s product line. Apple said new products do not yield profits during their earliest days that are as juicy as when the company is manufacturing them in bigger volumes. | Analysts were especially worried, headed into the holiday quarter, about Apple’s profit margins, which the company had warned would decline as a result of a near total overhaul of the company’s product line. Apple said new products do not yield profits during their earliest days that are as juicy as when the company is manufacturing them in bigger volumes. |
| While new products are a routine thing for a company like Apple, it said the sheer number of new gadgets it released just before or during the holidays, including the iPhone 5, iPad Mini and new Mac computers, was unusual. | While new products are a routine thing for a company like Apple, it said the sheer number of new gadgets it released just before or during the holidays, including the iPhone 5, iPad Mini and new Mac computers, was unusual. |
| But negative sentiment around Apple has further hardened amid reports that the company had cut orders for components with some of its parts suppliers, potentially suggesting weak demand for the iPhone. | But negative sentiment around Apple has further hardened amid reports that the company had cut orders for components with some of its parts suppliers, potentially suggesting weak demand for the iPhone. |