Wall Street Says Apple Isn't Selling Enough iPhones

The company sold 51 million iPhones during the holiday quarter. But that still wasn’t enough, sending the stock down 5% in extended trading.

Robert Galbraith / Reuters

Two phones, it seems, is still not enough for Apple.

The company sold 51 million iPhones during the holiday quarter, compared to 47.8 million phones in the same quarter a year earlier, according to its earnings release today. However, analysts were expecting the company to sell around 55 million iPhones.

It comes at a time when Apple is said to be considering not only releasing phones with bigger screens, but also ditching the plastic backing of the cheaper iPhone 5c. The iPhone 5c is widely considered to not be selling as well as the iPhone 5S.

After the earnings report, shares of Apple were down 5%, which should give activist shareholder Carl Icahn even more ammo to pressure Apple into doing something with its large cash pile.

Apple reported revenue of $57.6 billion, up from $54.5 billion in the same quarter a year earlier. It brought in a net profit of $13.1 billion, unchanged from the same quarter a year earlier.

During the same quarter, Apple sold 26 million iPads, up from 22.9 million iPads the year earlier.

The company's guidance for the next quarter was also soft, coming in at between $42 billion and $44 billion. While Apple has been expanding rapidly in China, including signing a long-sought after deal with one of its largest providers China Mobile, it would represent the possibility of a year-over year decline in revenue. Apple reported $43.6 billion in revenue in the second quarter last year.

via IFTTT