Posted: 27 month(s) and 4 days(s) ago   |   5 Comment(s)   |   Rating: 0 0
Posted by: WallStNick

Shares of Apple (AAPL) hit $200 on Wednesday for the first time despite lower than expected holiday retail sales.

People are hooked on Apple products, and chances are they will be for quite some time--just as long as Apple keeps innovating.

Apple's new products also yield higher margins for the company through lower memory costs. Analyst Shelby Seyrafi has a $225 price target on the stock. "Apple has a lot of momentum right now," he told the Associated Press.

There isn't any reason Apple won't hit Seyrafi's price target.  

The Company posted revenue of $6.22 billion and net quarterly profit of $904 million, or $1.01 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $4.84 billion and net quarterly profit of $542 million, or $.62 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 33.6 percent, up from 29.2 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 40 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

“Apple ended the fiscal year with $15.4 billion in cash and no debt,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the first quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $9.2 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $1.42.”

Apple shipped 2,164,000 Macintosh® computers, representing 34 percent growth over the year-ago quarter and exceeding the previous quarterly record for Mac® shipments by 400,000. The Company sold 10,200,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 17 percent growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone™ sales were 1,119,000, bringing cumulative fiscal 2007 sales to 1,389,000.

With this kind of consistent growth, there's no reason why you, too shouldn't love Apple to the core.

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Posted: 29 month(s) ago   |   12 Comment(s)   |   Rating: 0 0
Posted by: WallStNick

Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. (Nasdaq: SIRI) cut its third quarter loss to $120.1 million, or 8 cents per share, from $162.9 million, or 12 cents per share a year ago. Revenue for the quarter rose 45 percent to $241.8 million, but fell short of Wall Street's expectations of 244.3 million.

 The New York-based company finished the quarter with 7.7 million, and added 524,938 new subscribers during the quarter--a 50 percent boost over the year ago period.

 Seems like things are looking up for Sirius, largely due to Howard Stern, exclusive rights to broadcast NFL games, and deals with auto makers including BMW, DaimlerChrysler and Ford.

The company has also said that it hopes to close a merger with rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: XMR) by the end of the year. If the deal goes through, the combined company would have roughly 14 million subscribers.

The problem for satellite radio companies, however is churn--how many members is each provider losing, and does the addition of new subscribers offset ones that have fallen off?  Monthly churn for Sirius edged up to 2.1 percent, from 2 percent a year ago. That's 161,700 members a month--nearly 31% of what the company added in the entire third quarter.

 Just wondering what people think of Satellite Radio. Is it a flash in the pan, or is it here to stay? Owning a Sirius radio myself, I can honestly say that listening to free radio has become painful. The content offered on Satellite Radio is far superior than anything that's free.

 The only question that remains is does the merit of the content (which is basically all they have) justify the monthly subscription price of $12.95?

 Any thoughts?

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