Apple today reported financial results for its fourth quarter ended September 28, 2002. For the quarter Apple posted a net loss of US$45 million or $0.13 per share.
Apple had several non-recurring items that affected this quarters results including a write-down of certain equity investments totaling $49 million net of tax; a restructuring charge of $4 million net of tax; an in-process R&D charge of $1 million net of tax; and the reversal of a portion of a previous executive compensation expense resulting in a favorable impact of $2 million.
Excluding these charges the company would have posted a $7million profit or $0.02 per share meeting analysts expectations polled by Thomson First Call.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted some positives in the fourth quarter such as the release of Mac OS X 10.2, the company’s Switch campaign and the retail stores, which he said sold $100 million in merchandise and had 2.25 million visitors. Jobs did say, however, that things don’t look good in the short-term.
“Looking forward, we do not expect our industry to pick up anytime soon, though we’re hoping to help put a lot of iPods, iMacs and iBooks under trees this holiday season,” said Jobs. “With the stability of our rock-solid balance sheet, Apple will continue to invest through this downturn to create the industry’s most innovative products and best buying experience.”
Apple reported revenue of $1.44 billion, with 35 percent of that coming from international sales.
“Continued strong asset management enabled us to maintain a solid balance sheet with over $4.3 billion in cash,” said Fred Anderson, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2003, we expect revenue to be up slightly from the September quarter, and expect a slight profit for the quarter before non-recurring items.”
For the year, Apple reported net earnings of $65 million on revenues of $5.74 billion, compared to a net loss of $25 million on revenues of $5.36 billion in 2001.
Apple stock closed at $14.56, down 3.96 percent for the day. In after hours trading the company is trading down at $14.07.