Apple Profit Rises 27%; Stock Jumps

This is great news for the faithful, as well as anyone desiring to own a world class computer!

By LAURIE J. FLYNN
New York Times
October 19, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 18 — Apple Computer said Wednesday that strong sales of its Macintosh computers and iPod portable music players led to a 27 percent rise in its fiscal fourth-quarter profit.

The results, released after the market closed, caused Apple’s shares to jump as much as 6 percent in late trading as the company surpassed Wall Street forecasts.

Apple said a brisk back-to-school season was a major force behind the better-than-expected results. But executives cautioned that the report was subject to revision, as an investigation into the mishandling of stock option grants was likely to require a restatement of previous results.

The company, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., reported net income of $546 million, or 62 cents a share, in the quarter, up from $430 million, or 50 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue was $4.84 billion, an increase of nearly 32 percent from $3.68 billion the year before.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast Apple to report earnings of 51 cents a share on $4.7 billion in revenue.

Macintosh sales accounted for 58 percent of revenue in the quarter, spurred in part by the new school season’s huge demand for notebook computers, the company said. In September, Apple expanded its line of Macs and completed a transition to Intel-based microprocessors.

In a conference call with analysts, the chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer, spoke of “the best Mac shipments by far in any quarter in Apple’s history.”