Sure, for the past quarter …..But you know how the game is played. It's not always just about how much a company actually makes, a lot has to do about meeting,beating, or falling short of expectations. Apple fell short on guidance for the next quarter, and it raised concerns of a slowdown (perhaps unfounded..but time will tell) And it announced this on a really bad day on wall street. Perhaps wall street has set the bar too high, but it is what it is. And when at a rich $200/share, any slight deviation from expectation, it was bound to get wacked. I doubt we'll see $200/share again in the short term. And if they have another quarter that just meets or lowers expectations next time, I would think wall street is going to wack the stock some more. As much as i like their products, I cant convince myself to buy shares at this level.
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The company's earnings-per-share guidance of 94 cents was 15 cents short of what Wall Street was expecting. The sales forecast of $6.8 billion was roughly $200 million short of analyst estimates. The period covers the first three months of 2008.
Apple executives provided little explanation for the guidance shortfall, noting that sales are still expected to grow 29 percent, more than in previous years.
Apple has historically given conservative guidance, but the size of the miss rattled investors already skittish about the health of the economy.
Lower-than-expected sales of iPods loomed over the results.
Many analysts were expecting Apple to sell around 25 million iPods during the holiday quarter. Apple, however, sold 22.1 million, a figure that stirred fears sales will suffer as the company tries to convince consumers to buy higher-end iPods.
