Apple posts Q3 results: Earnings beat estimates at $7.47 per share on $35B in sales

Zach Epstein
Apple Earnings Q3 2013
Apple Earnings Q3 2013

Apple shares closed above $600 on July 23rd last year and then fell sharply on the 24th when Apple posted a huge earnings miss for fiscal Q3 2012. The stock recovered quickly though, and then skyrocketed to $705 ahead of the iPhone 5 launch in late September. The rest, as they say, is history. Apple shares are now down 40% since hitting that record high last year and the road to recovery remains unclear. We’re still about two months away from seeing anything new and exciting from Apple, and the company’s fiscal third-quarter results will likely give us a good idea of what to expect for much of the current quarter until Apple finally launches its next-generation iPhones and iPad, which are expected to be released in late September. In the meantime, Apple’s fiscal Q3 2013 numbers are now in.

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Wall Street expected a steep EPS decline in the third quarter as Apple’s margins continue to get squeezed. Analysts’ consensus called for a profit of $7.29 per share, down from $9.32 in FQ3 last year, on sales totaling $34.94 billion. Apple on Tuesday posted results that beat estimates, with earnings coming in at $7.47 per share, or $6.9 billion, on $35.01 billion in revenue.

Apple said it expects fiscal fourth-quarter revenue to land between $34 billion and $37 billion.

Sales of Apple’s iPhone lineup were expected to grow slightly from 26.03 million units in the fiscal third quarter last year to 26.57 million units last quarter. Actual sales came in at 31.2 million units, smashing the Street’s expectations.

Elsewhere in Apple’s product lineup, consensus estimates sought iPad sales totaling 17.62 million units in the fiscal third quarter, while iPod sales were seen falling to 4.98 million units from 6.75 million in FQ3 2012, and Mac sales were expected to decline marginally to 3.86 million units. Apple on Tuesday said it sold 14.6 million iPads, 4.57 million iPods and 3.8 million Mac computers last quarter.


This article was originally published on BGR.com