Apple Bites Back

Well if you hadn't heard today Apple $AAPL came screaming back today up almost 9% recovering most of the loses from the past week plus on record setting earnings that blew past even the most aggressive forecasts.  


The tough aspect about owning Apple is that on a valuation basis using fundamental analysis you can argue that the stock is still relatively cheap even though it has exploded higher by some 72% over the past year.  But Apple has become such a barometer of the entire market that it makes it uncomfortable to own because it doesn't necessarily trade on it's own accord and merit.


Here are the earnings highlights

• Profits up 94% over previous year.  Profits were $11.62 billion, or $12.30 a share, up from $5.98 billion, or $6.40 a share, a year earlier. Revenue increased 59% to$39.19 billion, with 64% of the top line coming from international sales.
• In January, the company projected earnings of about $8.50 a share on revenue of about $32.5 billion, above Wall Street's estimates at the time. Analysts had forecast a per-share profit of $10.04 and revenue of $36.81 billion.
• Highest Mac, iPhone, iPad sales in a March quarter
• Gross margin widened to 47.4% from 41.4%, and above the company's recent high of 44.7%.
• Sold 35.1 million iPhone units last quarter, up 88% from the prior year's total
• "For the first half of the fiscal year, we have sold more than 72 million iPhones, growth of over 100% and above the market by two times," Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said in an interview."We continue to see tremendous momentum in greater China where Iphone sales were five times the level of the year-ago quarter, aided by the launch of the iPhone 4S in China in January and the addition of China Telecom as a carrier in March," Oppenheimer said on the company's conference call.

• Sold 11.8 million iPad units more than double from a year earlier. Sold a record 3 million "new" iPads in the product's first weekend of sales.
• "Demand is staggering, and we're selling them as fast as we can make them," Oppenheimer said, possibly easing any concerns from those expecting higher iPad sales. Many analysts had projected iPad sales above 12 million for the March quarter.
• Generated more than $14 billion in cash flow from operations in the second quarter and reported about $ 110.18 billion in overall cash holdings
• Oppenheimer said that because Apple was able to fulfill so much demand for its iPhones and iPads in the March quarter, it would likely sell less than it would have in the June quarter. But, he added, demand for the iPad is still outstripping supply.