Preliminary fourth quarter results from A le

I'm sure you haven't forgotten that today is A le's 4th quarter earnings call. In anticipation A le has released preliminary fourth quarter results. Why are these results so preliminary? Because of a certain stock optio i ue that is going to force A le to restate some historical financial results which will, in turn, have an impact on these results.

Onto the numbers:

• A le posted a revenue of $4.84 billion and a net quarterly profit of $546 million ($.62 per diluted share)
• Gro margin was 29.2%, up from 28.1%
• International sales accounted for 40% of this revenue
• 1,610,000 Macs were shi ed this quarter (30% growth in Mac shipments)
  
• 8,729,000 iPods were shi ed (35% growth in iPod shipments)
• A le has over $10 billion in cash
• expects revenue of $6 to $6.2 billion for first quarter 2007

Not too sha y, and a 30% increase in Mac shipments? That's a pretty big deal, folks.