Apple: Shrs Rally On Huge EPS Beat, But Macro Concerns Remain; Piper’s Munster Chops EPS, iPhone Forecasts

Apple (AAPL) is one of the few bright spots today in a tech sector battered by bad news from Microsoft , Nokia , Sony , Seagate and assorted others. After the close yesterday, of course, the company posted much-better-than-expected results for its fiscal Q1 ended December, as surprisingly strong iPod sales and better-than-forecast gross margins overcame signs of weakness in Macs and iPhones. As always, Apple offered fairly conservative guidance for the March quarter - but the Street had been braced for an even worse forecast than the company actually delivered. Analyst reaction to the numbers has been quite mixed. While they were certainly impressed by the company’s ability to produce both strong top-line growth and margin expansion in the middle of a nasty economic downturn, there are also concerns about some soft spots. The 4.4 million iPhones sold in the quarter, for instance, was below some estimates, and Mac desktop sales were down sharply. Some noted a downturn in sales on a ... (link)