Apple Misses, Stock Tanks, Blame the Rumor Mill

Apple missed by Wall Street standards when it reported its Q3 numbers Tuesday and its stock tanked, dropping more than 5% after-hours, down roughly 31 bucks to $570 at best. It sold only 26 million iPhones, down 26% sequentially. Wall Street expected maybe 28 million or better. On the other hand, it sold 17 million iPads, which was better than the 15 milion-16 million the Street figured. It also got off 6.8 million iPods and four million Macs, up 2% and better than negative 1% IDC is giving the industry. At $35 billion revenues, although up 23%, it fell short of the $37.2 billion analysts expected. Ditto earnings. They were up 21% to $9.32 a share, but Wall Street wanted $10.35. Of course Apple had only guided to $8.68 on $35 billion so maybe it’s Wall Street that ought to get a grip on its inflated expectations ahead of a big product transition. The Wall Street Journal remembers that the same thing happened when Apple reported its September quarter ahead of the arrival of the iPhone 4S last year.

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