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Apple's quarterly conference calls with Wall Street analysts can be lukewarm, with little news or excitement. But that was not the case on Thursday night as CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri hit the investment community. The surprise frightened shareholders and briefly pushed Apple's stock market value below the $ 1 trillion threshold for the first time since crossing this symbolic threshold in August.
Thursday, Apple announced strong financial results for another quarter, although the warning that sales of the holiday season would not be as good as Wall Street hoped that investors would be disappointed.
This disappointment was amplified about an hour later when CFO Luca Maestri dropped the bomb. By reading a list of accounting and accounting changes made by Apple in its next quarterly report, Maestri added dryly that the company had decided not to disclose the exact number of iPhones, iPads and Macs sold each quarter.
"As we have said time and time again, our goal is to create quality products and services that enrich people's lives and provide an unparalleled customer experience, so our users are very satisfied, loyal and satisfied. committed, "he told analysts. . "As we achieve these goals, we achieve strong financial results. As evidenced by our financial performance in recent years, the number of units sold over a 90-day period is not necessarily indicative of the underlying strength of our business. "
Apple's stock price, which had already lost about 3% on the weak forecast of after-hours trading, fell quickly by 7.5% on concerns that reduced disclosure could signal. Although later, the decline was a little subdued and Apple's value was just over a trillion dollars.
Analysts seemed less satisfied, saying investors could see in the policy change a way to avoid admitting that fewer iPhones are being sold. "You know, there will probably be a lot of reluctance to not provide data from the iPhone unit," said Citigroup analyst Jim Suva at the call of Cook and Maestri. "It seems like you still give income data, but some people might be concerned that now means that iPhone units will start to become negative from one year to the next."
Cook and Maestri receded, but ended the call abruptly after responding to Suva. "It's a bit like going to the market and pushing your basket up to the cashier and she said," how many units do you have there, "Cook explained." It does not matter how many 39 units present in terms of the overall value of what's in the basket. "
Over the past year, the number of iPhones sold has stagnated – it has increased only 0.4% over the same 12-month period a year earlier. But by raising prices and adding the new, more expensive model of the iPhone X, Apple has convinced its customers to pay more and has posted strong growth in its business. Over the past year, iPhone revenues have increased by 18% to nearly $ 167 billion.
This strategy continues, as Apple's new iPhones launched last month are being sold at higher prices and the company has launched an even more expensive premium model, the iPhone XS Max. Then this week, Apple (aapl) copied the strategy and raised the starting prices of its new models iPad Pro, MacBook Air and Mac mini.
One of the reasons for the Chief Financial Officer is undeniable. Masetri pointed out that "our main competitors do not provide information on unit sales". It is true. Companies like Amazon (amzn) and Google (googl) never reveal the exact number of gadgets sold during the quarter, nor even the revenue generated by these products, as Apple will still do after the surprise change.
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