Apple Loses Shine, 5% Percent Drop in Shares

Apple Inc. (NYSE:AAPL) the world’s leading smart phone manufacturer was not able to meet the expected sales of its new iPhone 4S in the recently concluded quarter.

The world’s most valuable company saw the loss of co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Steve Jobs earlier this month and the company is now looked after by Tim Cook, the freshly appointed CEO of Apple Inc.

Apple on Tuesday announced that it made 17 million iPhone sales globally in its fourth fiscal quarter which ended on September 24^th. The fourth quarter estimated were projected to be more than 14 million unit sales the company made a year ago but did not meet expectations of 20 million or more sales.

The world’s most valuable company experienced a drop in prices of its shares following Tuesdays trading results. The shares that had been climbing massively dropped by 6.5 percent, the current per share price is $394.81 according to reports.

After the launch of the new model iPhone4S, iPhone sales slowed down towards the end of the fourth quarter, said Mr. Cook on a conference call. Tim Cook was very confident about the new model 4S, which Apple released in stores at the end of the quarter. Cook said that Apple is very confident on setting up an all time record for iPhone sales in the final quarter.

According to analysts, iPhone sales in the recent quarters have added to the company’s revenue by more than a third or close to half. Apple’s business growth is proportional on users continuing to purchase the phone or upgrading to latest version of the device, which is over four years old now. Brian Marshall, an analyst for ISI group said, the results should not be approached negatively, it is not a slowdown in share gains, it’s just a pause.

An overall $28.7 million revenue was posted by Apple in its fiscal fourth quarter, a 39 percent jump compared to the earlier quarters of the year, however a year over year slowdown in revenue growth by 82% in the third financial quarter was reported. Apple’s profit rose 54 percent to $6.6 billion, Apple said it sold 11 million iPads compared to 4.19 million iPad sales a year ago.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) also posted, results below expectations on Tuesday, fueling investor concern that tech spending is weakening. The tech industries economic slowdown was supported by Apple until now, results adding a mixed picture to it. Google Inc’s growth remained efficient, with brisk online advertisement sales in the recent quarter.

Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.