Cupertino, Calif. – Apple exceeded its revenue target for its fiscal third quarter posting an 8 percent sales increase for the three months, ended June 28, hitting $1.5 billion, compared with $1.4 billion in the year-ago period.
The company said revenue hit its highest level in 11 quarters.
For the third quarter, Apple recorded a $19 million net profit, down about 41 percent from the $32 million reported in the third quarter of 2002. Gross margin for the three months came in at 27.7 percent, 30 basis points above the 27.4 percent attributed to the same timeframe a year earlier.
The company shipped 771,000 Macintosh computers during the third quarter, down from 808,000 in the third quarter of 2002.
The Apple PowerBook continued to lead company product gains in the third quarter. The largest dollar segment of the computer maker’s business, PowerBook increased its revenue to $363 million in the three months, up 55 percent from the $234 million reported year-on-year. Unit sales jumped 71 percent year over year.
Sales of the Apple iMac decreased 29 percent, to $301 million in the third quarter, compared with $424 million in the same quarter in 2002. iMac unit sales in the three months were off 24 percent year-on-year.
Apple sales in the Americas increased 2 percent in the third quarter, hitting $831 million, up from $818 million in the same three months last year. However, unit sales edged downward 5 percent in the same period. International sales accounted for 39 percent of the company’s third-quarter revenue.
Sales for the nine months increased to $4.5 billion, up from $4.3 billion in the same period in 2002. Net income for the nine months, however, dropped to $25 million, compared with $110 million in the first nine months a year ago.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Apple expects a high single-digit percentage increase in revenue and a slight increase in earnings, relative to the third quarter, ended in June.
