Apple saw its position as the world’s most valuable company slip following release of its fourth fiscal quarter financial results that posted significant year-over-year gains, but fell short of the lofty expectations of investors.
Apple reported $6.62 billion in net profits for the quarter on revenues of $28.27 billion, which constituted a 53% increase in profits and 39% increase in revenues compared with the previous year. Gross margins also increased from 36.9% during the fourth quarter of 2010 to 40.3% this year.
Despite the seemingly breathtaking results, analysts were expecting just a bit more from Apple, sending the company’s stock down 7% in afterhours trading. The drop continued in early trading this morning as Apple’s stock was down nearly 4% at around $405 per share. The decline dropped the company behind Exxon Mobile Corp. as the most valuable company on Wall Street based on market capitalization.
One drag on results could have been iPhone sales, which despite increasing 21% year-over-year to 17.07 million in sales, seemed to lack that usual killer fourth quarter sales quarter that has typically resulted from the launch of a new device. This year, Apple pushed back the launch of its latest iPhone to the beginning of its first fiscal quarter, though it did report over the weekend that it sold a record 4 million iPhone 4S devices during its first three days of availability.
Apple also reported a 166% increase in iPad sales for the quarter, pushing out 11.12 million of the tablets during the fourth quarter of 2011. The only device segment to post a decline were its iPods, which dropped 27% year-over-year to 6.62 million units sold.
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