AAPL

Apple’s second fiscal quarter has just ended. Time for analysts to put forward their predictions for the quarter’s report (due in about 3 weeks.) If history is a guide, the estimates will range quite widely and accuracy will be determined mostly by the ability of an analyst to predict iOS device sales (and iPhone most Continue reading

Since reporting on the 18th, I’ve mostly finished going over the the fourth quarter Apple data. Here is a quick summary of the articles that covered the financial and product performance: Subject Article Cash Having added $20 billion last year, Apple’s cash growth suggests total could top $100 billion next year Growth Apple’s Growth Scorecard: Continue reading

As the highly profitable iPhone makes up an increasingly larger proportion of Apple’s sales, the overall gross margin would be expected to grow. Sure enough that’s what’s been happening. The gross margin percent, which measures the direct or variable costs of production vs. price, shows a healthy rise in the last five years from slightly Continue reading

In a recent but recurring lament I asked why Apple shareholders are not being rewarded for the company’s growth. I pointed out that there is no fundamental reason why the company should receive such a low P/E multiple (about 18 ex-cash trailing and 10x forward while maintaining 70% earnings growth for over a year). There Continue reading

In the previous article discussing the growth scorecard, I left open the question of how Apple’s growth is reflected in its share price. The approach to answering this question is to show how the share price correlates to that growth. The challenge for analysts has been that the company switched from subscription to current accounting Continue reading

Every quarter I try to score growth by top, bottom and product lines. As unforeseen growth is the only driver creating shareholder value, it’s of paramount importance to measuring a company’s performance. For Apple, the analysis is fairly straight-forward. There are relatively few product lines (seven including the iPad). I measure y/y sales growth and try Continue reading

After the last earnings report, many noted that Apple’s gross margins dipped. Turley Muller noted in a letter to PED that the cause was probably the aggressive ramp in iPhone 4 production which broke new records at 14.1 million units. That may be. My estimate of iPhone margin shows it dropping to about 49% from the Continue reading

Oppenheimer on the concall: We expect revenue to be about $23 billion compared to $15.7 billion in the December quarter last year. We expect gross margins to be about 36%. We expect OpEx to be about $2.325 billion. We expect OI&E to be about $65 million. And we expect the tax rate to be about Continue reading

During the last quarter the company added $5.2 billion to its cash, long- and short-term marketable securities accounts for a total of $51 billion. This amounts to about $53 per share vs. $49.43 per share in July (making the share price about $250 ex-cash). I would caution again that when reading commentary about Apple’s cash Continue reading