Thursday, April 21, 2011

The Biggest Takeaways from Apple's Call

By Eric Jackson
RealMoney Contributor

4/21/2011 11:30 AM EDT
Click here for more stories by Eric Jackson

It was another strong quarter from Apple (AAPL - commentary - Trade Now), which reported its results yesterday after the close.

The company beat on most of its numbers (as it usually does) and missed on some others. However, people seemed to pay little attention to the misses and gravitated toward the strengths of the quarter. This morning, there are already four upgrades out on the stock, which are helping to move the stock.

Taking a step back, here's what I thought were the most important details from the earnings release and conference call:

  • People liked the comments from Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook. He and CFO Peter Oppenheimer turned in another solid performance. They emphasized the wins, explained how they were dealing with some of the difficulties, and generally reassured everyone that the future remains very bright for Apple. The contrast between Cook's performance and Larry Page's from Google (GOOG -commentary - Trade Now) last week could not have been more striking. Expect investors to continue to notice and to comment on this difference in the months and quarters to come.
  • Japan doesn't appear to be a big deal on the demand or supply side. Before the call, there was intense speculation that Apple would be hamstrung in meeting intense demand for the iPad 2 because of the earthquake's effect on its suppliers. Cook denied this, citing "hundreds of suppliers" from many geographies. From a demand perspective, Cook said that the company had taken down its revenue estimates for the current quarter by $200 million in anticipation of disruption to Japanese consumers. After that, it doesn't appear there will be anything else.

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