Nokia, Apple, AT&T and others reported earnings in excess of quarterly projections. In fact, holiday season sales of Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus propelled the company to the biggest quarterly profit – $18 billion – ever recorded by a public company.
Nokia’s Networks unit exceeds Q4 expectations
Nokia recorded a strong fourth-quarter profit within its core Networks business, due mainly to a boost in North American sales. The result exceeded analysts’ expectations. Specifically, the unit’s Q4 operating profit climbed to $530 million, or 14% of sales, compared with $449 million in the previous quarter. Networks grew modestly in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and just 1% in Asia-Pacific. Gartner industry analyst Sylvain Fabre told Reuters that while the Finnish company showed impressive results in North America, the long-term concern is that Nokia is relying on maturing markets such as the United States, Japan and Korea.
Qualcomm beats Q1 estimates, lowers earnings outlook
Qualcomm beat revenue estimates for its first fiscal quarter, but also lowered its earnings outlook, which hit its share price.
The chipmaker notched $7.1 billion in revenue, up 7% compared to the same quarter last year and higher than the $6.94 billion estimated by analysts. Earnings per share of $1.34 were up 6% compared to the same period last year and higher than analysts’ estimates of $1.25 per share.
Looking ahead, Qualcomm lowered its earnings outlook due to “expectations that our Snapdragon 810 processor will not be in the upcoming design cycle of a large customer’s flagship device.” It was speculated that the company was referring to Samsung’s upcoming flagship phone, the Galaxy S.
SK Telecom reports robust Q4 earnings
SK Telecom reported an increased number of subscribers to its mobile Internet service and a spike in sales from its business solution service resulted in soaring Q4 earnings.
While SK Telecom did not provide detailed figures, company reps said the revenue of its business-to-business solution division had grown 12.7% compared to the same period in 2014. Looking ahead, the company said it plans to expand its “Internet of Things” business and focus on developing new platforms designed to connect business solutions and machines.
Apple breaks sales, profit records
Apple reported the biggest quarterly profit ever recorded by a public company.
Apple cited record iPhone sales as being behind its net profit of $18 billion during its fiscal Q1, which ended Dec. 31. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus propelled Apple to a record-breaking performance during the holiday shopping season, as the company sold 74.5 million iPhones in a single quarter. That’s a 46% increase from the year-ago quarter, when holiday shoppers were picking up the iPhone 5S and 5C models.
Record iPhone sales were matched by record revenue and profits. Quarterly revenue was up 30% year-over-year to $74.6 billion, two-thirds of which came from outside the U.S. Net profit came in at $18 billion, or $3.06 per share.
Connected devices, tablets propel AT&T Mobility growth
AT&T Mobility reported a more than doubling of net connections added during Q4, surging from 809,000 in 2013 to 1.9 million last year. That growth was mainly on the back of connected devices, which saw an increase from 398,000 connections in 2013 to nearly 1.3 million net connections last year, and to a lesser extent on postpaid services that jumped 50% to 854,000 net connections last year.
AT&T Mobility also managed to trim losses in its resale business, which dipped from a loss of 123,000 connections during Q4 2013 to a loss of just 65,000 connections in 2014. However, AT&T Mobility’s prepaid operations continue to struggle, with that segment’s net losses growing from a loss of 32,000 customers in 2013 to a loss of 180,000 connections last year. AT&T Mobility has been attempting to integrate its prepaid operations under the Cricket brand it acquired from Leap Wireless last year, but has so far not been able to show any growth.
