Apple’s Stock: Looks Like Jobs’s Departure Was Priced In.

Apple shares are down about 5% in after-hours trading following the news that Steve Jobs was stepping down as CEO.

This is to be expected: 5% is not actually a large drop, considering the importance of Jobs to the company he founded. Your Digits blogger doesn’t go in much for stock pricing, but it seems to her that this rather small selloff is simply an emotional reaction.

That’s not to say that the loss of Steve Jobs as CEO should be taken lightly, although he will remain as chairman.

What your Digits blogger means by that is this: Anyone who did not price Jobs’s coming departure into their purchase of Apple shares has not been paying attention.

Now, maybe there will be questions about how much Apple should have disclosed to shareholders. But the fact of the matter is that Jobs has been on medical leave since January. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004 and underwent a liver transplant two years ago, as Yukari Kane mentions in her story about the resignation.

Apple presents an air of magic, and everyone involved with Apple wants Steve Jobs to be healthy. But this is a serious situation, and investors by this point should have accepted it as such.

Apple’s share price is astronomical, it’s true. But that isn’t just because of Steve Jobs. It’s because Apple has been producing – increasing its share in the PC market, continuing it performance in smartphones and MP3 players, and just trouncing everyone when it comes to tablets. If Jobs weren’t ill, one could imagine that the stock price would be a good deal higher.

Of course, some could point to Apple’s previous stint apart from Steve Jobs – when the company nearly failed before bringing him back as chief executive. In that case, however, Apple was having trouble even before Jobs’s departure. It certainly was not coming off a string of hit after hit after hit.

A logical pricing of Apple’s stock might take into account the importance of Jobs, but it should also account for the fact that Apple appears to have a pretty good thing going.

Plus, Jobs has known for a while that he is facing a serious illness. There hasn’t been anything stopping him from making sure a long-term strategy is in place. He is going to remain as chairman, and the new CEO, Tim Cook, has been running day-to-day operations for some time.

So given the fact that Jobs is so identified with Apple, a 5% drop seems unsurprising and not terribly big. Jobs’s departure, while sad, appears to have been mostly priced in.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Reports Record Earnings Thanks to iPhone and iPad

Apple® (NASDAQ:AAPL) today announced financial results for its fiscal 2011 third quarter ended June 25, 2011. The Company posted record quarterly earnings of $28.57 billion and record quarterly net profit of $7.31 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $15.70 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 41.7 percent compared to 39.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The Company sold 20.34 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.25 million iPads during the quarter, a 183 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 3.95 million Macs during the quarter, a 14 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 7.54 million iPods, a 20 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

“We’re thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Right now, we’re very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall.”

“We are extremely pleased with our performance which drove quarterly cash flow from operations of $11.1 billion, an increase of 131 percent year-over-year,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $25 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $5.50.”

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q3 2011 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PDT on July 19, 2011 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq311. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.