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Apple beats the Street
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October 17, 2001: 6:32 p.m. ET
Fourth-quarter earnings beat forecasts, but first-quarter 2002 looks lower.
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NEW YORK (CNNmoney) - Personal computer maker Apple Inc. reported fourth-quarter earnings that were ahead of Wall Street estimates, but the company expects its next quarter's earnings per share to be below current estimates with revenue lower than its latest number.
Apple (AAPL: Research, Estimates) said Wednesday it earned $65 million, or 18 cents per share, excluding a $1 million after-tax investment gain, compared to a net profit of $170 million, 47 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.
Analysts surveyed by First Call expected the company to earn 16 cents per share on average.
Revenues fell to $1.45 billion from $1.87 billion for the fourth quarter of 2000, a drop of 22 percent.
But the company warned on results for the first quarter of 2002.
"Given the uncertain global political environment and weak economy, we are targeting December quarter of at least $1.4 billion and EPS of at least 10 cents," said Apple CFO Fred Anderson, in a statement.
First Call's average consensus earnings estimate for the company's first quarter is currently 18 cents per share.
The company also projected a loss for their new company retail stores, saying it was not clear consumers would spend during the holidays.
"The consumer needs to show up for the holiday season for the personal computer industry to do well in the December quarter," Anderson said in a
conference call. "We are cautious."
"We now expect that the slowdown in retail that everyone's experienced since the attack of Sept. 11 will result in our reporting a small loss for our retail stores for the December quarter rather than the break-even results we had previously expected," Anderson told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Anderson added in the company's press release that Apple's balance sheet "remains very strong, with over $4.3 billion in cash."
For 2001 the company's struggle was evident, with Apple reporting a net loss of $25 million with revenues of $5.36 billion, sharply down from last year's profit of $786 million with $7.98 billion in sales.
The company said it shipped 850,000 units in the fourth quarter, up slightly from the year-ago period. Shipment of the company's iMac fell, but its laptop iBook saw gains.
Apple shares have risen about 21 percent this year, putting it in a select group of technology stocks that have risen in that period. Even so, Apple has underperformed No. 1 PC-maker Dell Computer Corp by about 10 percent. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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