By MAY WONG The Associated Press
Thursday, July 15, 2004; 1:11 AM
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Strong sales for its computers and "staggering" demand for iPod portable music players helped Apple Computer Inc. more than triple third-quarter profits, topping Wall Street's expectations.
For the three months ended June 26, Apple said Wednesday it earned $61 million, or 16 cents per share, compared with $19 million, or 5 cents per share, in the same period last year. Revenues increased 30 percent to $2.01 billion.
Excluding an after-tax restructuring charge of $6 million, the company's net profit would have been $67 million, or 17 cents per share.
Wall Street analysts were expecting the Cupertino, Calif.-based company to earn 15 cents per share on sales of $1.94 billion, according to a survey by Thomson First Call.
"It was an outstanding quarter - our highest third-quarter revenue in eight years," said Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs. "Our Mac-based revenue grew a healthy 19 percent, and our music-based revenue grew an incredible 162 percent."
Investors responded favorably to the news.
Apple shares surged nearly 7 percent in after-hours trading, after finishing the regular session at $29.58 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Apple shipped 876,000 Macintosh computers in the quarter, up 14 percent from the year-ago period. The segment accounted for 58 percent of the quarter's revenue growth, Apple's chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said in an interview. He said most of the Mac growth was driven by higher laptop computer sales, as "the world is going more mobile."
Also, Apple shipped 860,000 iPod portable players, bringing the product's lifetime total to 3.7 million units, Oppenheimer said.
The demand for the mini version of the popular player has been "staggering" in the United States and continues to far outstrip supply even though the product's hard-disk provider has ramped up production, Apple's worldwide vice president of sales Tim Cook told analysts during a conference call. "Unprecedented" orders for European shipments, set to begin July 24, also will mean continued backlogs probably through the end of the year.
