One of the mysteries that lingers from Apple's most recent quarterly report--when the company failed to meet Wall Street's expectations and its stock suffered its worst one-day loss in four years -- was whether the analysts who set those expectations were aware that the quarter was one week shorter than the same quarter a year earlier.
As my regular readers know, Apple, like many retail firms affected by weekend sales, defines its fiscal quarters not as three months, but as 13-week periods. To compensate for the resulting shortfall of one or two days a year, the company adds an extra week every fifth or sixth year (depending on the number of leap years in between)--giving it 7.7% more selling days in the long quarters and 7.1% fewer in the short.
Seems pretty straightforward.
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