Apple Q4: Mac sales up 17%, iPhone sales hit 7.4m

Apple today revealed Q4 revenue of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per diluted share.

This contrasts with revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion, or $1.26 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.6 percent, up from 34.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The company confirmed what many industry observers hadn’t expected, that it is continuing to exercise the subscription accounting treatment required by GAAP, presumably while it implements new systems which don’t assess income in this manner.

For the present, though, Apple recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for iPhone and Apple TV over their estimated economic lives.

What’s important is the adjusted figure, in Apple’s own words: “Adjusting GAAP sales and product costs to eliminate the impact of subscription accounting, the corresponding non-GAAP measures for the quarter are $12.25 billion of “Adjusted Sales” and $2.85 billion of “Adjusted Net Income.”

Numbers look pretty good:
– 3.05 million Macs – 17% up year-on-year (y-o-y).
– 10.2 million iPods  – 8% down y-o-y
– 7.4 million iPhones – 7% up y-o-y.

“We are thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.”

“We are delighted with our September quarter and fiscal 2009 results,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, moving on to full year results. “For the full year, we grew revenue by 12 percent and net income by 18 percent in extraordinarily challenging times.”

Pretty positive guidance, too. “Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue in the range of about $11.3 billion to $11.6 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $1.70 to $1.78,” Oppenheimer said.

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q4 2009 financial results conference call starting at 2pm PDT.