The release of the iPhone 6 and 6+ helped Apple (AAPL) beat earnings and revenue estimates in its fiscal Q4 report announced after the bell Monday. Overall sales of $42.1 billion with earnings per share (EPS) of $1.42 far exceeded Zacks consensus estimates of $39.96 billion and $1.30 per share, respectively.
Further, Apple provided Q4 guidance of $63.5-66.5 billion in sales, the high range of which easily topped the Zacks consensus of $64.4 billion. After gaining 2.14% in regular-day trading, Apple shares are up a smidge following the earnings report in the after-market.
iPhone shipments for the September quarter reached 39.3 million units, better than the 38 million expected. iPad sales were down 13% year over year, and missed expectations of 13 million units shipped, reaching only 12.3 million. But that seems to be the only smudge in Apple's fiscal Q4 at first glance; Mac shipments of 5.5 million exceeded the 4,75 million expected, and was the best quarter ever for Mac sales.
With Apple Pay launching just today, we'll be able to track another significant revenue stream in the coming quarters, but even still, Apple seems to be back to its old self again, easily beating earnings expectations on impressive execution bringing highly desirable products to market. iPhone sales in the launch weekend for the iPhone 6 and 6+ reached 10 million, and with the launch coming as it did at the end of fiscal Q4, expectations of iPhones driving growth appear sound.
Apple has now beaten earnings expectations in each of the past 5 quarters, though today's beat was by the widest margin in the past 10 quarters. Apple shares currently carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Also reporting earnings after the bell Monday was Texas Instruments (TXN), or TI. Much as Apple did, TI topped on both top and bottom lines with earnings of 76 cents per share and $3.5 billion in revenues. This was better than the 71 cents and $3.28 billion, respectively, we had anticipated. TXN shares are up 2.5% thus far in late-day trading. TI is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock.
It would appear as if IBM's (IBM) poor earnings release before the bell today is not necessarily related to a greater problem within the tech industry as a whole, or at least not as far as Apple and Texas Instruments are concerned.
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