After the bell on Tuesday, we got several key technology earnings reports. Obviously, everyone was waiting for the big giant in the room to report, and they did. What a quarter! However, other names did report, and those names need to be mentioned. Here's how the tech sector did on Tuesday afternoon.
Apple (AAPL): Apple crushed expectations in almost every category. Revenues came in at $46.33 billion, well ahead of the $38.9 billion analysts were expecting. Earnings per share came in at roughly $13.87 per diluted share, well above the $10.08 or so that was expected. Now, the question remains, how was everyone so off on this? Well, we should have seen it coming, and here's why.
Read this article I wrote recently: Apple Expected To Beat, But By How Much Is The Question?
Based on the last seven quarters worth of guidance, you would have expected Apple to come in at $43.06 billion and $13.06. So, we should have expected around that. However, you also have to take into account that Apple's quarter contained 14 weeks instead of the normal 13, so you have to account for that. Even if Apple did include 14 weeks in its guidance, you would expect them to be a little conservative. Which means we should have seen this coming.
Now back to the numbers. Apple sold over 37 million iPhones, well above even the highest estimates on the street for 35 million. The company sold 5.2 million Macs in the quarter, which was slightly ahead of expectations. Apple sold 15.4 million iPods, down 20% over the past year, but nobody was expecting much there. The company also sold 15.43 million iPads, well above expectations as well.
It was truly a blowout quarter, and I'll have more on the quarter once more data is released (like the official 10-Q). For now, here are a few other tech names that did report on Tuesday.
Yahoo (YHOO): Yahoo missed on the top line, posting revenues of $1.169 billion (excluding traffic acquisition costs), which was a bit below the $1.19 billion expected. Earnings per share were in line at 24 cents a share.
Yahoo's guidance for the first quarter was slightly disappointing as well. Revenue guidance (again excluding traffic acquisition costs) was for a range of $1.025 billion to $1.105 billion. That gives us a midpoint of $1.065 billion, below the $1.08 billion expected.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): The chip maker also reported earnings after the bell. Revenue came in at $1.69 billion, which was a bit below the $1.72 billion expected.
Now the company posted a net loss due to an investment impairment charge. Excluding the charge, the company posted non-GAAP earnings of $0.19, which actually beat the $0.16 that was expected. However, when you include the charge, the company posted a net loss of $0.24.
As for guidance, the company said it expects first quarter revenues to be down 8% sequentially (over the fourth quarter), plus or minus three percentage points. That implies about $1.56 billion, which is below the $1.6 billion currently expected.
CA Technologies (CA): The IT and software name might see the best post-earnings stock movement after its quarterly report. For the fiscal third quarter, the company reported revenues of $1.263 billion, well ahead of the $1.21 billion expected. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at 65 cents, and GAAP earnings came in at 54 cents. Expectations were for 54 cents on a non-GAAP basis, so the company beat by 11 cents.
The company also announced a plan to return $2.5 billion to shareholders. The company will boost its annual dividend from 20 cents a share to $1.00, a huge increase. The company also announced a $1.5 billion stock buyback, of which $500 million will be accelerated, to be bought back in the first quarter of this year (company's fiscal fourth quarter). This will definitely have an impact on future EPS.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
