Apple Computer Inc celebrated delivery of the one millionth Power Macintosh with its first quarter figures, beating goal of a million in the first 12 months that it set when it introduced the product line in March. Fiscal first-quarter profits of $188m or $1.55 a share were well above even the most optimistic estimates on Wall Street, up from $40m a year ago. Analysts had been looking for between $0.89 and $1.20 a share, with a consensus estimate of $1.09; without a $0.09-per-share exceptional gain, Apple would still have earned $1.46 a share in the quarter. Less impressive given the boom-time state of the personal computer market as a whole was that turnover was up a healthy but not stunning 15% in the quarter, to $2,830m. Apple credited its entry-level multimedia Macintosh products, including the Performa 630, as well as the Power Macs in general for the rise in turnover.Margins on Power Macs are firm, and gross margins improved to 28.7% of net sales in the quarter, up from 24.0% a year earlier. Margins were at 26.7% in the fourth quarter to September. Operating expenses for the first fiscal quarter, before the beneficial impact of restructuring adjustments, were 19.3% of net sales – one of the company’s lowest expense ratios in its history, down from 21.4% a year earlier. Apple attributed the improvement primarily to its ability to increase revenues while holding operating expenses at about the same level as they were in the 1994 first fiscal quarter. But With the likes of Compaq Computer Corp growing even faster, Apple latter still has it all to do to secure its future with its Mac OS licensing policy.
