AOL is on top of the world again and Apple is collapsing! Except really not at all!
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I admit, I don’t completely understand “the street”, as in the expectations of analysts as to what a company’s earnings will be. I also can’t quite wrap my brain around some of the financial reporting that’s out there (Marketplace, naturally, excluded). Case in point: AOL is still losing money because it’s a completely outmoded brand doing things people don’t want much anymore. But! The company’s revenues declined at the lowest rate in seven years so it’s being celebrated now.
Meantime, Apple reported a ton of money at its own earnings call but it’s being played out as terrible news.
The company posted net income of $8.8 billion on revenue of $35 billion. Earnings per share were $9.32. Both numbers missed Wall Street estimates. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had been expecting Apple to post earnings per share of $10.36 on revenue of $37.2 billion.
Apple’s guidance for the fourth quarter also disappointed: The company forecast $7.65 a share for earnings on revenue of $34 billion. That’s low even for Apple, whose guidance is often comically conservative. Analysts had been looking for $10.22 a share in earnings on revenue of $38 billion.
From the technology team over here at MTR, I’ll just point out that Apple will soon launch the iPad Mini and the iPhone 5 so hopefully the struggling company can get back on track. AOL will soon be launching a new chat room about The X-Files.
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