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An Apple store in Bangkok.
Mladen Antonov / AFP via Getty Images
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it posted better-than-expected results during its first fiscal quarter as the customer got iPhones, Macs, iPads and other Apple products at an impressive pace. Sales exceeded Wall Street expectations in all categories.
Looking ahead to the quarter, Wall Street analysts’ expectations were driven primarily by the potential for an explosive quarter for iPhone sales, following the recent launch of the iPhone 12 line. And Apple (ticker : AAPL) delivered.
In a conference call with analysts, CEO Tim Cook said the company spent 1.65 billion devices installed worldwide during the quarter, with the iPhone’s installed base exceeding 1 billion. He also said the company had record revenue in all geographical areas.
Overall, Apple reported revenue of $ 111.4 billion, up 21% from the previous quarter, and earnings of $ 1.68 per share. That was well above the street consensus: $ 102.8 billion and $ 1.40 per share.
Apple posted revenue for the iPhone in the $ 65.6 quarter. billion, up 17% from a year ago, well above the $ 59.6 billion street consensus, according to FactSet monitoring.
The three months ended December 31 were also strong for laptops and desktops. For iPads, sales amounted to $ 8.4 billion, up 41% and ahead of the street, to $ 7.4 billion. For Macs, which gained momentum from both the arrival of the first models powered by Apple’s home M1 processor and the continued capture of demand triggered by the trend of staying at home, sales were 8.7 billion of dollars, 21% more and slightly above the street forecast of $ 8.6 billion.
Portable product sales were also strong and grew 30% to $ 13 billion, ahead of the street, with $ 11.5 billion. And revenue from services increased 24%, to $ 15.7 billion, ahead of street consensus, by $ 15.2 billion.
Sales increased 12% in the Americas, 17% in Europe and 57% in Greater China, with gains of 33% in Japan and 11.5% in the rest of Asia.
“Business performance for the December quarter was driven by double-digit growth in each product category, which generated records of historical revenue in each of our geographic segments and a record high for our installed base of active devices, ”said CFO Luca Maestri. in a statement. “These results helped us generate a record operating cash flow of $ 38.8 billion. We also returned more than $ 30 billion to shareholders during the quarter as we maintain the goal of achieving a neutral net cash position over time. “
The company said it repurchased $ 24.8 billion shares during the quarter.
Apple did not provide financial forecasts at launch. For the station’s smoothest March quarter, the consensus wait for the street has been $ 74 billion in revenue and earnings of 90 cents per share.
Maestri said in the call that, given the ongoing uncertainty due to the pandemic, the company again does not provide details on the revenue and profit prospects. But the company said it expects revenue growth to accelerate year after year. He said the company expects some sequential slowdown in services growth, due to a difficult comparison a year ago, and that it also expects slower growth in portable products.
After a concentration of 82% in 2020, shares have added another 7% this year. The shares remain the world’s largest company by market capitalization, valued at just under $ 2.4 trillion.
The company ended the quarter with $ 196 billion in cash and securities, offset by a total debt of $ 112 billion, for net cash of $ 84 billion, the chief financial officer said. He also noted that the gross margin for the quarter rose to 39.8%, from 38.4% a year ago.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]