Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) has become more transparent in terms of its books of accounts and its financial reporting.
Its recent filings have revealed some accounting changes and in the process also revealed an increase in investment and profits in various divisions.
The company increased its investment in Research & Development (R&D) by a full 33 percent in the December quarter, about the same as it did the year before.
The accounting changes have also shown that its iTunes business is about the same size as Microsoft’s Windows and Office business.
The new classification has shown that iTunes has grown enormously even as iPod sales reached and passed maturity.
iTunes has grown by a third just over the last year, while Apple-brand and third-party accessory sales have grown more modestly but are still up nearly 20 percent year-over-year. The iTunes-software-services category is now worth nearly $13 billion in revenues all on its own.
Seagate Technology PLC(NASDAQ:STX)’s shares slumped 9.50% to $33.93 after it reported fourth quarter results that came in above estimates.
Revenue in the three months ended in December rose to $3.7 billion, yielding earnings per share of $1.38, excluding some costs, on a non-GAAP gross margin of $1.38.
Analysts had been modelling $3.58 billion and $1.27. The company shipped 58 million disk drives.
At a conference call with analysts, Chief Executive Steve Luczo said that in the current quarter the company’s revenues would be in the range of $3.25 billion to $3.45 billion, below the average $3.5 billion estimate on the Street.
He said, “Our outlook reflects an addressable market that is flat to down sequentially.”
