Apple attributes Mac to surging profits, up 27%

The graph of success for Apple Computer Inc. is surging higher and indicating no signs of coming down for the maker of award-winning desktop and notebook computers and the digital music revolution, iPod.

Cupertino, CA based-Apple, the first successful personal-computer company, on Wednesday announced preliminary financial results for its fiscal 2006 fourth quarter ended September 30, 2006.

The Company posted net quarterly profit of $546 million, or 62-cent per share profit, which was an increase of 27 percent overall in sales and beating a consensus estimate of 51 cents. Apple posted revenue of $4.84 billion. The figures compare to $430 million or 50-cents per diluted share, and revenue of $3.68 billion, in the same quarter a year ago.

An aggregate margin was 29.2 percent, up from 28.1 percent in the same period a year earlier. The company has counted the international sales as the determined factor for 40 percent of the quarter’s revenue. The iconic portable music player, iPod, first launched in October 2001, accounted for nearly a third of Apple's quarterly sales.

During the quarter, Apple sold 1,610,000 Macintosh computers, up 30 percent from the year-earlier period and 8,729,000 iPods, a 35 percent increase from the equivalent earlier year quarter, after the surging demand by students at schools and universities.

Attributing the quarter best ever for Macintosh, Apple said it had sold nearly 1 million notebook Macs, up 56 percent from a year ago. The figure of sold Mac computers topped the previous record of 1.38 million in the first fiscal quarter of 2000.

On the tremendous figures the company witnessed in the quarter, Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO said, “This strong quarter caps an extraordinary year for Apple. Selling more than 39 million iPods and 5.3 million Macs while performing an incredibly complex architecture transition is something we are all very proud of,” asserting further that “Looking forward, 2007 is likely to be one of the most exciting new product years in Apple’s history.”

The company also concluded the year with more than $10 billion in cash and short-term investments, up from more than $8 billion fiscal 2005. The company also boasts to have increased annual revenue by $11 billion in the last two years.

About the company’s future expectations, Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO said, “Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2007, we expect revenue of $6.0 to $6.2 billion and earnings per diluted share of $.70 to $.73.”

However, analysts expect a first-quarter profit of 77 cents per share, on average, within a range of 62 cents to 84 cents, on revenue of $6.43 billion.

Apple shares were up 4.0 percent at $77.61 in composite late trading after the company announced results, yesterday. Shares closed in regular trading on NASDAQ at $74.53.