Earnings

3 theories of Apple's growth

The latest: Share price tracks sales growth, and AAPL hits $600 in 2013

Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty believes Apple's (AAPL) revenue most closely tracks how much it spends on new equipment (in MBA terms, CapEx ex-retail stores). Her chart looks like this:

By that formula, Apple's revenues will hit $183 billion by the end of fiscal 2012.

Asymco's Horace Dediu has drilled a little deeper into Apple's capital expenditures. He believes Apple's sales MORE

About Apple's incredible shrinking P/E ratio

In 2007 it was trading for nearly 50 times earnings. Today it's 10. What happened? 

Perhaps the most succinct commentary on Leonid Kanopka's naive claim that Apple (AAPL) is a "bubble ready to burst" (see "A few fries short of a Happy Meal") was Nicu Mihalache's plaintive response: "Do you know what P/E is?"

The price-to-earnings ratio, as every trader knows, is the simplest way to gauge how the market values a company. A high P/E -- MORE

Cisco promised a turnaround. Is this it?

Cisco has been struggling to find a suitable second act. Now, with its major competitors distracted, the first glimmers of hope may be in sight.

By Kevin Kelleher, contributor

FORTUNE -- Few companies have been as central to the Internet's development as Cisco. ISPs, private companies and public institutions have relied on its switches and routers so much that the San Jose company's name might as well be synonymous with the Net's MORE

Where Apple makes its money

 The company's quarterly income statement at a glance via Asymco's Horace Dediu

This "cascade" chart of Apple's (AAPL) fourth fiscal quarter of 2011, posted Monday by Asymco's Horace Dediu, takes some explanation.

At the simplest level, the height of the first column represents the company's top line ($28.27 billion total revenue) and the last column, in green, represents its bottom line ($6.62 billion profit).

As for the rest, Dediu offers some handy tips: (edited MORE

Netflix and Amazon aren't as bad off as it seems

Investors were caught off guard by results at Amazon and Netflix. Truth is, if they'd been paying closer attention, they'd have seen it coming.

By Kevin Kelleher, contributor

FORTUNE – This fall's earnings season is starting to look like hunting season for big-name web companies. First, Netflix drops 35% in one day, Tuesday, after heavy subscriber losses and warning investors that it would lose money for a few quarters next year. Then MORE

Charting Apple's off-the-chart growth

How can investors wrap their heads around 16 quarters of double-digit growth?

To fend off what he calls "superlatives fatigue," Asymco's Horace Dediu posted a pair of charts Wednesday that put Apple's (AAPL) sales and earnings growth in perspective.

The first, at right, assigns color bands to low, moderate, high, very high and exceptional (triple-digit) growth.

The second, below, is a little harder to make sense of, but it shows how much bigger MORE

Why Apple shares are dirt cheap

Ahead of Apple's earnings, the numbers tell it all: If shares don't soar after its quarterly report, it will likely trade at valuation levels not seen since the depths of the financial crisis, making it the cheapest large-cap tech stock.

By Andy M. Zaky, contributor

FORTUNE -- As Apple prepares to report its fiscal second quarter results after the bell on Wednesday, a huge question on investors' minds is whether or not MORE

Google reports monster Q3 2010 earnings

Google blew away forecasts and is up 40 points or almost 8% in after hours trading

Google just posted its Q3 2010 earnings results and it looks like the company did pretty well for itself.  Google (GOOG) is up 40 points or 7.5% in after hours trading.

Google reported non–GAAP EPS of $7.64, compared to an analyst consensus $6.68.  Revenue was $7.29 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2010, an increase MORE

AAPL pops ahead of one-two punch

Shares rise sharply in advance of next week's earnings report and special event

With strong earnings expected to be announced Monday Jan. 25 and a new product scheduled to be unveiled two days later, Apple (AAPL) shares climbed steeply Tuesday morning.

The release of several positive reports on Mac sales for the quarter than ended Dec. 26 probably didn't hurt, either.

The stock closed at $215.04, up 9.11 points (4.42%) for the day, MORE

Google gets frugal and profits soar

By Yi-Wyn Yen

Meet Google 2.0. Gone are the search giant's free-spending ways - at least for now. The prospect of a severe economic slowdown has forced Google to do something surprising: act fiscally responsible.

The company toned down costly expenses like data centers and new hires and reported profits Thursday of $1.35 billion for the third quarter, up 26% from a year ago. Earnings per share were $4.92, which crushed Street MORE