Apple's "disappointing" quarter out-performs hugely profitable companies

In many of the financial press accounts of Apple's Q1 2013 results, the terms "disappointing" and "flat" were used to describe the company's performance. Well, as you can see in the graphic above from Statista, Apple's performance was far and away better than that of any other US company.

How good was the first quarter? It was the most profitable quarter ever for a tech company at $13.1 billion in net income. The previous record? Apple's Q1 2012 net income at $13.06 billion. How did the other tech companies do? Microsoft came in a distant second place at $6.4 billion, while IBM trailed in third place at $5.8 billion. Apple's profits were more than those of Microsoft and IBM combined.

Why Apple's share price is bumbling around the $460 mark at this point is still a matter of conjecture. Legg Mason portfolio manager Bill Miller said it could be that investors are beginning to think that Apple products no longer have the attractiveness to consumers that they used to. His idea for bringing the share price up? Apple should increase the dividend it began paying to shareholders.

[via AppleInsider]