Topic: Growth Stocks

The Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, October 23, 2009

Article Excerpt

APPLE INC., $203.94, Nasdaq symbol AAPL, rose 9% this week after it reported quarterly earnings and sales that were much higher than expected. The company also launched new versions of its iMac computers in time for the Christmas shopping season. Apple earned $1.82 a share in its fourth quarter, which ended September 26, 2009. That’s 44.4% above the $1.26 a share that it earned a year earlier. Sales rose 25.0%, to $9.9 billion from $7.9 billion. Analysts were expecting Apple to earn $1.42 a share on revenue of $9.2 billion. The gains were mainly driven by high demand for the latest version of Apple’s iPhone smartphone and strong computer sales during the back-to-school shopping season. The company sold 7.4 million iPhones during the quarter, up 7% from 6.9 million a year earlier. It also sold 3.05 million computers, up 17% from a year earlier. Sales of its iPod music players fell 8% to 10.2 million. But that’s mainly because users are…