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So Many Q4 Earnings, So Little Time: AAPL, GOOGL, AMZN and More

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Another big avalanche of fresh quarterly statements from some of the biggest names in Tech and elsewhere released after today's closing bell. However, while Q4 earnings season has been mainly robust overall, we see some fairly acute negative surprises from some of the markets' more beloved stocks.

Apple, Inc. (AAPL - Free Report) , of the $861 billion market cap, posted positive results in its headline fiscal Q1 2018 earnings, with $3.89 per share beating the $3.82 expected, up 16% year over year. Revenues in the quarter of $88.3 billion outperformed the Zacks consensus by a cool $2 billion. Both figures are all-time highs.

That said, Apple missed iPhone sales estimates by a wide margin: 77.3 million phones were shipped in the quarter, well below the 79.8 million we had been looking for. Share in the after-market are only trading down 1% following the release. For more on AAPL's earnings, click here.

Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL - Free Report) put up a wildly mixed Q4 report after the closing bell, missing estimates of $10.12 per share to hit $9.70. Yet revenues were well ahead of the Zacks consensus -- $32.3 billion versus $25.65 billion. The search behemoth did take a $9.9 billion charge related to the new tax laws, and paid clicks were up 43% year over year. Shares fought back after an initial late-market sell-off. For more on GOOGL's earnings, click here.

Amazon.com (AMZN - Free Report) shares, however, are trading up 6% in the late session following an earnings beat -- $2.20 per share versus an estimated $1.85, on revenues of $60.45 billion which outpaced the $59.99 billion estimate and ramped up 38% year over year. True, this is not quite the 5,100% positive earnings surprise from Q3 2017, but big companies like Amazon rarely post such extraordinary figures in back-to-back quarters. For more on AMZN's earnings, click here.

Zacks Rank #4 (Sell)-rated GoPro (GPRO - Free Report) sorely missed estimates, posting a loss of 30 cents per share, which was expected to have been a loss of -$0.10. Revenues did not fare better -- $334.8 million missed the $340.31 million we were anticipating, down 38% year over year. Shares of the wearable camcorder company are trading down roughly 3.5% in the late session. For more on GPRO's earnings, click here.

Credit card giant Visa Inc. (V - Free Report) outperformed expectations on its top- and bottom-lines Thursday, with $1.08 per share topping the Zacks consensus 98 cents, on revenues of $4.86 billion that beat estimates by $5 million. The company reaffirmed full-year guidance for 2018 (Visa had just reported its fiscal Q3). For more on V's earnings, click here.

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