Blowout quarter selling more than 61 million iphones in just the first three months of the year. Proving to investors that its smartphone sales are still going very strong. Here are the numbers and there are a lot of them. Apple reported a 33 increase in its quarterly profit over a year ago. It pulled in 2. 33 a share, that was 17 cents better than estimates. E up 27 . Coming in at an astonishing 58 billion, easily surpassing expectations there and apple is going to give back more to shareholders increasing its dividend 11 . Boosting its Share Repurchase program by 50 billion to a total of 140 billion and pledging to return a total of 200 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends by 2017. And how about for it . It now stands at 194 billion and investors initially sent shares to a new high in after hours trading. Josh lipton now with more on apples earnings and what tim cook told him earlie reporter the big number in apples latest Earnings Report 61. 2 million. That is the number of iphones that apple ships in a quarter and that was better than expected. Wall stree was looking for apple to ship about 57 million iphones. I did have the chance to sit down and speak with ceo tim cook that found iphones overall, 44 year over year ak pointed out the growth and particular geography, Greater China up 70 . The u. S. Was up 20 . Mexico up 80 and south korea up 100 . The reason thats important is for all the buzz and talk about apple watch or apple tv it is the iphone that is the engine of apples business. It still contributes more than 50 of this companys sales. For nightly business report, m josh lipton in cupertino, california. David gerty is a fan of apple, apple shares and why he thinks the stock could gain 35 or more from todays already lofty levels. Principal of his own tech firm gva research. David, welcome and as always great to have you with us. Josh lipton just pointed out that 50 of apples profits come from one product and that is the iphone. Is that really the way it ought to be there or is that potentially a risk at some point . Its been a risk investors have been focusing on for a long time. That to the extent that apple has been as surveillance as as theyve been theyre small in penetration in terms of total global market. Probably less than a third of the units that are out there and if we look at whats driving Economic Growth globally its going to be continued penetration of devices like smartphones, basically internet enabled Smart Devices and apple clearly is the premium brand in this area. We would have to say that yes, you know there is risk but the thing thats nice to look at is we see strong reception for new products such as the apple watch, a device thats going to rely upon people having an iphone to actually use. But that seems to be taking fairly good uptake and whats good for investors to look at is that the apple watch will have better than average profit margins. So were going to be looking here at profit margins, arguably rising rather than falling. So i hear you implicitly saying that the apple watch is going to drive iphone sales at least marginally higher. Actually what i was saying is that the prospects that to the extent that iphone 6 and 6 plus sales a being as successful as they are, actually has the opportunity to drive apple watch sales. Mmhmm. So youll have a nice add on. The thing to think about here even if you look at the actual selling price for the smartphone being around 660 average apple watch prices most likely will be moved coming in perh higher than that. You have a stock price target of about 180 a share which is 35 from current current levels. How do we get there . What does the market have to revalue to take the stock there . Oh first and foremost i mean apple currently is trading at about 15 ti or so this current years estimate for earnings. The company is growing their earnings, probably b 2 20 rate. A price earnings trading to their growth rate. A lot of the discount i think is due to the fact people are concerned about this dependence on the iphone. As we start to see the success of products like an apple watch, as we start to see broader portfolio strength if you will then i think you have its not unreasonable to see Technology Stocks trade in line with their Earnings Growth rate and with a company like apple trading at discount you know this is a gap which if it closes just to get one time its growth rate is whats going to get you on current earnings number for this year and next up to the 180 level. Very quickly, if you could pinpoint one risk to that hypothesis and to apple stock prices what would it be . I think that, you know some of the concerns people have looking at larger addressable markets such as perhaps the possibility that apple would get into the car business, obviously, there are always risks to have Companies Enter new markets. Cl has any business going out in manufacturing cars but thats not to say they shouldnt be in the business of potentially designing cars made in collaboration with other companies. Its a question here of how well is apple actually executing on the strategy to go into new end markets. I think what investors hav to take away from the launch of the apple watch and the success its seeing is we should have greater confidence that management does know how to expand the Product Portfolio and start to value the y accordingly. Thank you, good to hear from you. You bet. Nasdaq highs but the gains didnts biotech shares turnecloser. Dow finished at 18,037. Nasdaq snapped five day win streak falling 32 and the s p 500 dropped 8. Despite the down day though, positive ts are emerging in the market and the bulls are looking to some big events this week that could move stocks. Bob pisani has more now from the reporter stocks ended in the red but still just off record highs. This is a great relief to everyone who worried that the market could not possibly advance once the feds start the qe program and certainly not within a few months of the fed raising rates which seems likely later this year. With the fed meeting this week the big question how will they characterize the economy . Will it be enough to get desiesively out of the trading range weve been in . The Economic Data has certainly been choppy with q1s gdp up a measly 1 . Yi theres a good chance the three factors moving the market the bad weather, the weak oil and the strong dollar all likely temporary and now reversing. And indeed they are reversing. West texas intermediate and crude near the highs of the year while the dollar prize stopped and even declined since its highs in mid me sto gains ahead. The strong dollar in particular has been a mess for multinational companies. Look at the difference between big cap s p 500 where Many Companies get half of revenues overseas and the small cap s p 600 get little, if any overseas. Down 3. 4 in the First Quarter. The s p, 600. Revenues up 5 . Wow. Thats the differenc mor 8 Percentage Points and thats largely the strong dollar hurting the top and the bottom line. For nightly business report, im bob pisani at the new york stock exchange. Applied materials in tokyo, electron scrapped their merger plans. The multibillion dollar deal would have created one of the Worlds LargestSemiconductor Equipment manufacturers. Both Companies Said they didnt believe they could get any trust approval. Shares of Applied Materials dropped sharply in trading today. You can see there down more than 8 in 1987. Mylan rejected farmpharmaceutics takeover. Mylan said it remains committed to producing irelands perrigo in a 22 billion proposal spurred last week. Mylan, perrigo ended lower today. A new bird flu found in four iowa poultry farms. The Iowa Department of agriculture said the new case affects nearly 2. 3 million birds. That brings the total number of confirme cases out in iowa to more than 6 milli today, chipotle which builds itself as a healthier fast food alternative became the first natural restaurant chain to offer a menu completely free of genetically engineered ingredients. Thats taken almost two years to eliminate foods made with genetically modified organisms or gmos from its supply chain. But chipotle said its all part of rethinking the. As of today, if you want your food free of gmos and you want it fast you can get it at chipotle. And at its shop house, Southeast Asian restaurants. Gmos a engineered to improve production pests or require less water to grow. By the fda and surprisingly pvalentpr n 90 of corn and soybeans produced here are genetically modified. Chipotles move has been in the works since it became the first chain to voluntarily disclose which foods contain gmo ingredients. Founder steve els down plays any Financial Impact and sees todays move as a natural next step. I wouldnt think about the removal of gmos as being a significant hurdle financially. But for years now, weve been committed to what we call food with integrity. So the removal of gmos is just a natural evolut that. Reporter still, chipotle standards sometimes do eat into its results. First Quarter Sales were up more than 10 . But that was short of estimates. Amiss chipotle blamed on ongoing pork shortage because refused to sell meat it claimed came from farms that mistreated animals. Gmos have long been a source of controversy. Many countries including australia, japan, and much of europe restrict or even ban the production and sale of genetically modified foods. Chipotle and others argue that more studies are needed to determine the longterm effects of eating food with gmo ingredients. Though theyve been deemed safe by both the fda and world health organization. Even if they are safe though, consumn changing. Last year for example, General Mills responded to concerned parents by switching to all nongmo ingredients and whole foods require all of its suppliers to label gmo products by 2018. Since the early 1990s, chipotle has staked its claim as a healthier fast food alternative. Early adopter of what appears to be a fast growing trend. And today, shares of chipotle closed higher. They finished at 643 a share. The west coast labor troubles returned to the nations busiest ports but this time not a dispute between shipping companies and the international longshoremen. This time its different. Morg reporter just as the countrys biggest port complex was starting to recover from congestion another labor strike has struck. Today, Truck Drivers hauling containers for four companies ticket to picket lines. The west coast port of los angeles and long beach. The gripe . Job classification. Drivers at pacific 9 transportation intermodal bridge transport, and harbor rail are considered independent contracts but they want to be Company Employees. A move they say would result in better wages and workplace protections. Not to mention the ability to unionize. But Trucking Companies counter that the pay is good has to deal with the Driver Shortage and this strike doesnt count the majority of workers. I dont think it lasts that long because these are high paying trucking jobs. It makes the equation easier to negotiate. If we were to see an extended slowdown we could see everyone affected from the northern and Union Pacifics to the railroads that pull loads directly from there, the jb swifts of the world, its premature to make that kind of concern. Rep t port strikes over the past year had little impact with a few hundred drivers out of the ports 16,000 picketing, the ports are still open for business. But experts say the situation sheds light on a much bigger issue. What happens if these drivers succeed in being recognized as Company Employees . If you disallow contractor status then you have much more expensive employees at your hands. You haveassets pay Social Security tax, medicare tax, withholding, a different situation from a legal label perspee as well as you have to buy the assets they currently buy and maintain. Reporte strike aside, this debate making its way through californiaou system Truck Drivers filing misclassification suits since last falls high profile cases already found in favor of drivers. For nightly business report,. Still ahead, the Brand New Companies that are cashing in as home remodelling goes dig Corinthian College is closing its doors, shutting down remaining 28 campuses and whats believed to be the biggest shutdown in the history of Higher Education in the united states. Corinthian said it is working with other institutions to help the displaced more than 16,000 students who now wont get their degree. The announcement comes a few weeks after the department of education fines corinthian 30 million for misrepresenting job placement data and last year the Government Cut off the schools access to federal aid. For those ready to start their college careers, this is decision week. High School Seniors may 1 is the deadline to make final College Decisions and send in a deposit to secure a spot in the freshmen class next fall. For many a major part of this decision involves evaluating the Financial Aid award letter and Sharon Epperson joins us now with more on what to consider. S an emotional decision that you really sometimes cant separate purely from dollars and cents but what are the things families need to consider . Terms of dollars and cents they really need to think of the cost of tuition for a year. Fees room and board, and travel. Look at scholarships and grants they offer and what they say in an award letter about federal aid eligibility. The key here is to look at this awards letter youve got the acceptance letter thats where the emotion and excitement comes in. The award letter for Financial Aid, people really get sticker shock and see what theyre really going to have to pay. How do they go about calculating the actual final bottom line number thats going to affect them . Well the first thing, they need to consider whats in there in terms of the money theyre talking about. Free money, scholarship and grants . Thats what you to look at first. Of course and then theres earned money. So a lot of times in a Financial Aid package, its a Work Study Program which is to think about how many hours a week is the student going to have to work find the job, how much are they getting paid how will that reduce the actual cost and then think about the federal Student Loans theyre getting, that of course, is borrowed money and then you really want to be careful you dont borrow too much and really afford to pay back. How can the family do the number work to figure out what they can affor pay . Look at attendance and also those direct and indirect costs. California on the east coast . Thats a big travel bigll. Make sure to cover in there and off campus the intangible. And then the scholarship, the grant. And what you have as a result is the net price of the cost of going to college. Thats going to have to come out of your pocket. Thats going to have to come out of your pocket. Where quickly can people get more information . Studentaid. Edgoif. Different programs that are available and then look at sally may and edvisors. Com. Great to see you. Sharon epperson. Proctor and cutting. Thats where we begin market focus. The Worlds Largest advertiser wants to to gilletteji gillette razors to accelerate growth. 80. 60 to close. Activist investor nelson peltz an active fight for influence at dupont institutional sh services or iss recommended that shareholders give the billionaire investor seat on the companys board. This is peltz fund to push the chemical maker to split into two company sh4. 5 to hire today at 74. 81. Container store, as much as 25 lower. After the close, the companys quarterlies and revenue came in well below estimates. The retailer blamed weather among other factors. Shares as you can see way off initially after the bell. Before the close, the stock was up 1 to 21. 69. Watch that one tomorrow. Tough day for the drug maker acorn pharmaceuticals. Investors got a chance to react to announcement that the company will restate its earnings from the final three quarters of 2014. And that its First Quarter fili 2015 probably going to be delayed. This is some of the previously announced financial informa turned out to be wrong. Shares fell 22 to 43. 10. Well home values rise. Homeowners gain much needed equity and putting it to work. Home remodelling on the upswing again and so are the Brand New Companies behind popular remodelling web sites. Diana olick has our reporter before the dumpster comes in or the dry wall goes up the mouth designs the house. Steven Steven Gately went online at the design build firm. Give them an idea what you liked, disliked and it made that design process, it gave the designers a sense of who we are and what were looking for in terms of the new space. Reporter g on to house, a web site thats grown into a remodelling marketplace valued at over 2 billion. I think that the fact that the vendors were there, the homeowners ready to do that and they really wanted the house to become the place where they do everything. I view it as an added cost of doing business. Reporte remodelling web sites not just a destination for homeowners but necessity for remodelling professionals. Most of us got into this because we love the smell of sawdust, passion about homes and now we have to be experts in social media and all these other platforms. R t competition is growing fast. Take for example seattlebased porch. Com, a company that connects homeowners with Home Improvement professionals. They started in this space just over a year ago with barely 100 workers. Theyre busting out, literally taking on 75,000 square feet of new space, expecting at least 600 employees by year end. Its nice to have wins that are back. He got it into as home equity took a huge leap. It offers consumers both professional contact as well as Historical Information and visuals of local area renovation. Focusing on aggregateing this data that nobody else has, building these partnerships like nobody else has like lowes and all of these, sets up to build products others cant and that just gives us a really big advantage. Porch garnered 100 million of Investor Capital so far he says and with 300 billion remodelling business at their doorstep i have several home magazines i think i can get ri they have an awful lot to build on. For nightly busines seattle. House is funded by comcast, Parent Company of cnbc that produces this program. Coming up can a company headquarter on the other side of the globe take on apple, the Richest Company on earth . On apples home. Take a look at what to watch tomorrow. Pfizer merck, and ups report earnings before the l r begins two day policy meeting and Consumer Confidence for april will be released. Thats what to watch tomorrow. Well as we told you earlier in the broadcast, apple saw its iphone sales surge but now another smartphone maker thats trying to get the attention of American Consumers and compete with apple head on. Eunice yoo. Reporter these chinese phones claim many firsts. First to use a special usb port for charging to support wireless hdmi. To compete directly with the iphone 6 on apples home turf. The lu 1, lu 1 max of letv. You probably havent heard of it but in china, letv is a probably streaming site for videos and live tv. Sort of like a netflix but with its own movie studio smart tvs and now branded phones to rival the iphone 6. Letv phones are high end. Theyre competitive with apples but much cheaper. The lu 1 costs 246 and the lu 1 pro sets you back 110. The company said not to worry about the low margins on the phones but to make money off of memberships to its Massive Library of tv shows and movies. Letv offers everything from chinese seriess like house of cards and Sports Events like the ncaa driving viewership of more than 500 million. Letv plans to sell its phones in china in may. And it hopes to market the lo 1 pro in the u. S. And have it here by the end of the year but some critics say the company is in over its head because unlike apple, its never made phones before. Some also believe letvs venture into america wont work well since most of the content is in chinese. They said theyre targeting communities first before a bigger audience. Aims to sell 3 million phones in the first year still a fraction of apples iphone sales, but just a start, letv says of its global ambitions. For nightly business report, and that is nightly business refo thanks for watching. Have a g everyone and we hope to see you right ba. 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