Apple reported record results on Monday — yet fickle investors punished the stock, sending it plummeting close to 9 percent in aftermarket trading on fears that the current quarter is on track to disappoint.
The iPad maker said it earned $57.6 billion in the October-to-December quarter — beating its last quarterly revenue record of $54.5 billion this time last year.
The tech giant reported profit of $13.1 billion, or $14.50 per diluted share, in the period compared to a profit of $13.1 billion, or $13.81, last year.
Apple told Wall Street to expect revenue for the current quarter to be $42 billion to $44 billion, squashing analyst’s dreams of revenues of $46 billion. the Cupertino, Calif., company posted revenues of $43.6 billion in the period last year, or roughly what it’s predicting this time around.
“The March quarter forecast was quite a bit worse than expected,” said Brian Colello, analyst with research firm Morningstar.
Meanwhile, Wall Street had high hopes pegged on Apple’s freshly inked deal to sell its iPhones through China Mobile, which boasts 750 million users. Apple signed that deal earlier this month.
Seeking to reassure investors, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the deal with China Mobile already resulted in “the best activation week we’ve ever had in China.” He also said sales will improve as the program ramps up to iPhone sales in 300 Chinese cities from 16 currently.
By then it may be too late, analysts said. Apple’s softer outlook for the current quarter could “provide Carl Icahn with more ammunition,” said Brian White of Cantor Fitzgerald.
Icahn, a well-known corporate agitator with a $3.6 billion stake in Apple, has been pushing for the company to boost its stock by upping its share repurchase program to $110 billion from $60 billion.
Shareholders will vote on the measure next month.
Also dragging down the stock were disappointing i-Phone sales. Apple said it sold 51 million iPhones in the first quarter, beating its previous record of 47.8 million in the year-ago quarter. But analysts had been expecting Apple to sell more than 55 million iPhones worldwide during the holiday quarter.
Apple also set record sales for its iPads during the quarter at 26 million, compared to 22.9 million in the year-ago quarter. The company sold 4.8 million Macs, compared to 4.1 million in the year-ago quarter.