Apple Stock Falls On Reduced Outlook

Shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) were down 4% today due to a restrained outlook that wasn't as good as investors had hoped.

Ironically, the company did have a huge quarter, but their forecasts weren't as high as expected. The company earned $1.07 billion, or $1.19 per share, which was 11 cents ahead of Wall Street's expectations. Revenue was up an impressive 38%, to $7.46 billion.

The company rolled out the 3G iPhone recently, but numbers for that product were not included in the quarter. Overall, Apple said they were selling quite a few iPods and Macs. In fact, they sold more Macs than ever before.

Apple issued relatively conservative numbers for Q4, which were well below analyst's expectations. That seemed to shake confidence for investors who ended up doing a heavy round of profit-taking.