Apple announces fiscal Q4-2006 earnings
The company posted revenue of $4.84 billion and net quarterly profit of $546 million, compare to revenue of $3.68 billion and net profit of $430 million in the year-ago quarter. CFO Peter Oppenheimer anticipates revenue of $6.0 to $6.2 billion for the first fiscal quarter of 2007.
Apple shipped a record 1.61 million Macs and 8.7 million iPods sold during the quarter, a 30 percent growth in Macs and 35 percent growth in iPods over the previous year. This makes a total of 5.3 million Macs and 39 million iPods sold in Apple's fiscal year.
During the quarter Apple shipped a combined 986,000 MacBook and MacBook Pros a 56 percent year-over-year unit growth. Notebook revenues accounted for $1.34 billion, up 63 percent.
The only dark cloud hanging over the otherwise stellar earnings report was the announcement on 4 October 2006 that Apple would most likely restate results due to the ongoing investigation of stock options backdating.
An independent committee investigating Apple’s stock option practices has reported its findings, which are under review by the Company and its independent auditors. The investigation determined, among other things, that stock option grants made on 15 dates between 1997 and 2002 appear to have grant dates that precede the approval of those grants for accounting purposes. As a result, management continues to believe, and the audit committee agrees, that Apple will likely need to restate its historical financial statements to record non-cash charges for compensation expense and related cash and non-cash tax adjustments relating to past stock option grants.
More information is available in the Apple press release.