Piper: Mac growth highest in years, margins hurt

The performance of Mac sales in Apple's second quarter was the best the company has seen in years, write analysts with Piper Jaffray. The research firm notes that with a year-over-year unit growth of 51 percent, and an accompanying revenue growth of 54 percent, Macs did better in the last quarter relative to any other period in the last 17 years. Growth estimates for the second half of CY08 are expected to decline to 12 percent year-over-year, but this should not be a major problem; Mac growth is continuing to accelerate as a whole, even though it has already been strong for several quarters.

iPod sales, meanwhile, are said to be stabilizing with higher ASPs as a result of the Touch, and the iPhone should become an important factor in the second half of 2008, thanks to the 3G hardware, v2.0 firmware, and the App Store.

Like other firms, Piper is expressing concern over decreased margins at Apple, which it attributes to the cost of producing MacBook Airs. The company is said to have benefited this term from a tax rate of only 29 percent however, which helped yield a $1.16 EPS. Had Piper's belief in a 32 percent taxation come true, EPS would have shrunk to $1.11.

Filed under: Investor, Apple
Other story tags: MacBook Air