Apple Beats the Street; Guidance a Bit Light

First quick look at Apple’s earnings: Tim Cook and company have beaten the Street’s expectations. Apple earned $1.33 per share on revenue of $8.16 billion, beating the consensus of $1.09 and $8 billion. The company also outperformed estimates for sales of the Mac, iPod and iPhone. At first glance, a strong quarter. But guidance for the next quarter may be a bit less than what  Wall Street was looking for, which is fairly standard for the company.

Next up: The company’s earnings call, where investors will be looking for more information about a product line refresh, Steve Jobs’s health and any other info the typically closemouthed company dribbles out. I’ll be covering that live at a separate post at 5 p.m. Eastern.

Relevant unit sales: “Apple sold 2.22 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing a three percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 11.01 million iPods during the quarter, representing three percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone units sold were 3.79 million representing 123 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.”

Here’s what that looks like if you break it down (click to enlarge):

Earlier today, AT&T (T) said it had shipped 1.6 million iPhones this quarter, down a bit from the previous three months.

Here, from Silicon Alley Insider’s Dan Frommer, is what the Street was looking for:

• March quarter revenue: $7.69 billion consensus (6% y/y growth)
• March quarter EPS: $1.09 consensus
• March quarter GM: 32.5% guidance, 33.6% RBC estimate
• March quarter Mac shipments: 2.1 million consensus
• March quarter iPod shipments: 10 million consensus
• March quarter iPhone shipments: 3.3 million consensus (some analysts at 3.7 million)
• June quarter revenue: $8.28 billion consensus (11% y/y growth), guidance could be $7.8-$8.1 billion
• June quarter EPS: $1.12 consensus, guidance could be 92 cents-$1.02
• June quarter GM: 33% consensus, guidance could be 30.5%-31.5%

Press release excerpt:

CUPERTINO, Calif., April 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 second quarter ended March 28, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.4 percent, up from 32.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

In accordance with the subscription accounting treatment required by GAAP, the Company recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for iPhone(TM) and Apple TV® over their estimated economic lives. Adjusting GAAP sales and product costs to eliminate the impact of subscription accounting, the corresponding non-GAAP measures* for the quarter are $9.06 billion of “Adjusted Sales” and $1.66 billion of “Adjusted Net Income.”

Apple sold 2.22 million Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing a three percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 11.01 million iPods during the quarter, representing three percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone units sold were 3.79 million representing 123 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

“We are extremely pleased to report the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Apple’s financial condition remains very robust, with almost $29 billion in cash and marketable securities on our balance sheet. Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter of 2009, we expect revenue in the range of about $7.7 billion to $7.9 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $.95 to $1.00.”

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q2 2009 financial results conference call utilizing QuickTime®, Apple’s standards-based technology for live and on-demand audio and video streaming. The live webcast will begin at 2:00 p.m. PDT on April 22, 2009 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq209/ and will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.