Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s fourth quarter earnings turn out to be disappointing

After the third fiscal quarter, when Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) managed to fall short of the predictions and expectation, this is the second fiscal quarter where Apple has again fallen short of the expected results. There have thus been two consecutive bad quarters for the technology giant. The company managed to get earnings of about $8.67 per share, while the Zack Consensus Estimate had been $8.85 per share. The company missed the mark by around 2.1 percent. The revenue, however, was the silver lining. It was better than the predictions. While the estimate had been $35.8 billion, the company managed to rake in $36 billion.

The iconic phones by Apple are the main reason for the revenue growth, with the company having sold about 26.9 million of the various iPhones. The estimates for the fourth quarter had been 25.3 million. A major reason for the growth in the figures had been due to the release of the iPhone5 in September. The phone had received an overwhelming response from everyone all over the world. However, it is still impressive that the iPhone5 had managed to boost up the sales despite being in the market for only a week and a half before the end of the fourth fiscal quarter for Apple.

The other Apple products, however, have not fared so well in the market. The iPads, the iPods and the Macs have not been all that popular in the market, it seems. The iPad, which was expected to sell 15.8 million copies, managed to sell about 14 million during the fourth quarter. Similarly, the other products too, missed their estimate marks, and brought the revenue down.

The EPS numbers of Apple and its prediction had sent analysts into a flurry of activity. The initial figure had been $8.41, just after the quarter had begun. But then it increased to $8.95, within the space of a month only. There were continuous revisions, since just seven days before the results the analysts did 8 downward revisions, along with 3 upward revisions. This is for AAPL. The company is still doing quite well for itself, but it needs to take notice of the downward spiral of the stocks to $100, and the lowered earnings by the company.