Apple has released financial results for the 2008 4th quarter... and they're looking good.
Apple shares officially closed earlier today at $91.49, bumping to $93.40 in the after-market just before the earnings call, whereupon further stock transactions for AAPL were halted... quite the unusual play by Jobs which traditionally signals some pretty hefty news is about to take place.
Needless to say, when trading resumed just 20 minutes later after the earnings call, shares skyrocketed to ~$103, marking a 13% after-hours surge.
The report, released today at 2 p.m. PDT, revealed $7.9 billion in revenue and $1.14 billion in net quarterly profit. The gross margin was 34.7 percent up from 33.6 last year.
Apple revealed they shipped 2,611,000 Mac computers during Q4, showing a 21 percent unit growth and a 17 percent growth in revenue up from last year. As for the iPod an eight percent unit growth and three percent revenue growth was reported for selling a total of 11,052,00 during Q4.
But the one Apple product that tops them all is the iPhone, selling a whopping 6,892,000 as compared to the 1,119,000 reported last year and topping analyst estimates of 4,500,000. This means Apple has already surpassed their 2008 goal of capturing 1% of the smartphone market, selling over 10M units.
"Apple just reported one of the best quarters in its history, with a spectacular performance by the iPhone -- we sold more phones than RIM," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.
Apple's guidance, which is traditionally low, forecast a bleak profit of $1.06 to $1.35 a share for the upcoming quarter -- analysts predict Apple will reach closer to $1.69.
The full report is still ongoing and will be available
HERE for listening over the next few weeks.
