Apple Inc on Wednesday posted a 36 percent rise in quarterly profit, helped by strong sales of Macintosh computers and iPods, but its lower profit margin and cautious outlook disappointed investors. Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer also told Reuters he expected gross margin to be similar to the March quarter's 32.9 percent, which was down from 35.1 percent a year ago.
Apple said it expected profit of $1.00 per share on revenue of $7.2 billion for its third quarter ending in June. Wall Street was looking for earnings per share of $1.11 on revenue of $7.17 billion, according to Reuters Estimates. The company blamed the gross margin slide on lower sales of its Leopard operating system, a price cut on the low-end iPod shuffle, and higher sales at its iTunes online music and movies store, which runs at break-even or slightly profitable. For its second quarter ended in March, net profit rose to $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per share, from $770 million, or 87 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue grew by 43 percent to $7.51 billion.
That beat average analyst forecasts for revenue of $6.95 billion and earnings per share of $1.07, according to Reuters Estimates. Sales of the company's main products exceeded or were at the top end of analysts' estimates, with Mac shipments soaring 51 percent to nearly 2.3 million units.
IPod unit growth of 1 percent, to 10.6 million units, flew in the face of widespread expectations of a modest fall. Apple sold 1.7 million iPhones, at the high end of Wall Street estimates, with Oppenheimer saying he was confident the company would hit its goal of selling 10 million of the devices by the end of 2008. US revenue was up 40 percent, while overseas revenue rose 47 percent.
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