Throughout the month of July, countless industry analysts and Wall Street watchers worked overtime to revise their Q3 earnings estimates for Apple, guessing that the tech titan would see close to record earnings on stronger than expected iPhone and iPad sales.
Unfortunately for these analysts – and for Apple – those optimistic revisions weren’t rooted in reality.
Late Tuesday, shares of AAPL fells 5% in after-hours trading as the company revealed net income was $8.8 billion ($9.32 per share). While that’s up 21 percent from $7.3 billion ($7.79 per share) one year ago, Wall Street was looking for gains amounting to $10.37 a share.
In other words, it was a “huge miss” for Apple.
Revenue spiked 23 percent to $35 billion, but analysts were expecting $37.22 billion in revenue.
“I think people were prepared for a bit of a top-line miss, but this is a bit extreme,” Alex Gauna, an analyst at JMP Securities, tells CNBC. “Obviously, gross margin wasn’t enough to save the stock in this case.”
Apple sold 26 million iPhones in the quarter, at the low end of expectations. It sold 17 million iPads, beating forecasts. The company reported that its cash pile rose to $117 billion, an increase of $7 billion during the quarter.
By Wednesday morning, shares of Apple are down a whopping $30.
