Grit your teeth. Remember the last Apple miss? I hope investors have wised up by now but you never know. Stupidity knows no boundary.
NW
Apple's Loss Misses Expectations
SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan 17, 2001 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Struggling Apple
Computer Corp. posted a first-quarter loss greater than what Wall Street was
expecting, but promised a return to profitablity next quarter.
For the three months ended Dec. 30, the company posted a loss of $247 million,
or 73 cents a share, the company said Wednesday. In the year-ago quarter, Apple
earned $183 million, or 51 cents per share.
Wall Street analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial were projecting a
loss of 65 cents a share.
Taking into account one-time investment gains as well as some accounting
adjustments, Apple's loss was $195 million, or 58 cents a share, the company
said.
Revenues for the quarter were $1 billion, down 57 percent from the $2.34 billion
of the year-ago period.
Shares of Apple finished regular trading down 31 cents to $16.81 on the Nasdaq
Stock Market. After the earnings report, shares crept up to $17.25 in
after-hours trading.
The Cupertino-based company has been suffering from sluggish sales, increased
competition, and a glut of inventory - problems which some industry analysts
predict will not improve in the current quarter despite an optimistic outlook by
Apple officials.
Apple has slashed prices of its products in recent weeks and announced a new
lineup of products at MacWorld Expo last week, including faster, more powerful
models of its Power Mac G4 and a new titanium PowerBook laptop. It also said its
new Mac OS X operating system will be bundled with new computers starting in
July.
That lag time between the announcements and the new OS X systems, however,
"could potentially stall the market for Apple products until that time," said
Rob Enderle, an industry analyst with Giga Information Group.
Apple officials, however, said they expect to return to profitability starting
this quarter.
"Consumers like the current OS, too, and I don't think there'll be a delay,"
said Fred Anderson, Apple's chief financial officer.
"Our cash position remains very strong at over $4 billion, and we are planning a
return to sustained profitability beginning this quarter," Anderson said.
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