fiscal quarter ending December 27th, 2014, and it blew the doors off of analysts’ expectation. The company sold 74.5 million iPhones during the holiday quarter, which is astonishing when you consider this means it sold 34,000 iPhones every hour over that time. Record revenue from iPhone and Mac sales, as well as a record performance from the Apple App Store, led to the company’s highest ever revenue of close to $75 billion. Even more impressive, the company posted net profits of $18 billion, a record for any publicly traded company. Shares rose about 5% in after hour trading after the positive financial news. Now that the financial results have been released and pored over by analysts, there is a divergence of opinion on how the stock will perform during the rest of 2015. Nearly a dozen research firms raised their price targets on Apple after the company’s impressive report. But some analysts believe that Apple will face significant challenges in the coming year, citing such arguments as the stock is now too expensive or that slowing smartphone growth, which Apple is overly reliant on, will harm the company’s margins. However, Apple is well positioned for continued growth in 2015 because of its diverse ecosystem of product offerings and its success in China. Furthermore, the company is still currently undervalued, even with its stock price having climbed over 60% since the same time last year.
Apple made $18 billion in profit that quarter, more than any company had in corporate history. With so much growth over the past year, investors understandably might believe that the company has saturated the smartphone market and does not have much room left to grow. They are wrong, however, as Apple’s stock price will continue to rise in 2015. Continued success with the iPhone, a revamped iPad strategy and new products offer plenty of room for growth, while the stock is actually still priced relatively cheaply.
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