Stock is already down 6.31% in aftermarket! Geez
edit: was incorrect on my numbers.
spiralpolitik: Expected revenue for Q3 was 46-48b (see Q2 earnings press release). So they beat the estimate by 1.6 billion. The 49-51b number is the Q4 estimate.
The Company posted quarterly revenue of $49.6 billion and quarterly net profit of $10.7 billion, or $1.85 per diluted share. (...) Gross margin was 39.7 percent compared to 39.4 percent in the year-ago quarter.
Investor conclusion: Apple is not doing so well. There is something wrong with the stock market when a company post record profits, almost 40% margin (on electronics) and that's seen as an omen.
I understand it is the opposite, brokers bet earlier that the results would be even better and are now unloading the bets at a lower price (causing the market correction) but even so it is amazing how detached stock brokerage is from investment and how close it is from gambling.
Funny, I reach the exact opposite conclusion: people were willing to pay a specific price for Apple dependent on the expectations of future earnings. Those earnings didn't meet expectations, therefore the market adjusted the price. Working as intended.
The 49-51b number is the Q4 estimate.
Or are saying they missed the estimate that some analyst pulled out of their ass ?
Here is a spreadsheet of analyst predictions: http://fortune.com/2015/07/21/apple-earnings-expectations-q3...
They range from $48b to $53b.
So people adjust their predictions, stock prices fluctuate, hopefully no one cares because Apple missing predictions by a couple million bucks is materially irrelevant for the company and couldn’t be any more materially irrelevant if it wanted to.
Pointing to the stock market as some sort of paragon of rationality is not a bright move. You may want to reconsider your stance.
Here's what analysts are expecting, via the Bloomberg Terminal.
Revenue: $49.4 billion EPS: $1.81 iPhone units: 48.8 million (whisper number is 50 million) iPad units: 10.9 million Mac units: 4.9 million Revenue guidance: $51.06 billion
Revenue and EPS are actually better in their earnings report.
The only thing that’s worse is that they sold 1.3 million fewer iPhones and .1 million fewer Macs. iPads are right on. Revenue guidance is $49b to $51b.
In general, Wall Street doesn't act the slightest bit rationally around Apple. No matter how record-breaking Apple's numbers are, there's always some insane analyst that projected even higher numbers, which means everybody then reports Apple as a "miss" (even though they always beat their own estimates, and meet or beat all of the sane analyst predictions, which is most of them). And since it's a "miss", stock drops.
Really, what's more shocking is those very rare times when the stock climbs after-hours after an earnings report (or after the WWDC keynote or the annual September event).