by CIO Staff

Apple Profits Nearly Double; Shares Drop

News
Jan 19, 20061 min
IT Leadership

On Wednesday, Apple Computer announced that its profit nearly doubled in the first quarter, The New York Times reports.

Regardless, the company’s outlook for the second quarter dropped well below Wall Street predictions, causing Apple stocks to fall 7 percent.

“We are thrilled to report the best quarter in Apple history,” said chief executive Steven Jobs. “Two highlights of an incredible quarter were selling 14 million iPods and getting ready to launch our new Macs with Intel processors five to six months ahead of expectations.”

Despite Jobs’ enthusiasm, Apple investors are concerned with the company’s second quarter profit forecast, which calls for 38 cents a share on revenue of $4.3 billion, including a 4-cents-per-share expense related to stock-based compensation.  This outlook is significantly lower than the 48 cents a share on $4.67 billion in sales that was previously predicted by analysts.

Apple’s report followed below par forecasts on Tuesday from Intel and Yahoo!—on which CIO reported yesterday.

On the other side of the coin, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), the number two worldwide computer chip producer behind Intel, jumped more than 10 percent in extended trading after leaving analysts’ fourth quarter forecasts in the dust. 

–Al Sacco