Apple has just reported its financial results for Q1 2017.
The Company posted all-time record quarterly revenue of $78.4 billion and all-time record quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.36. These results compare to revenue of $75.9 billion and earnings per diluted share of $3.28 in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64 percent of the quarter’s revenue. This was as a result of 78.3 million iPhones, 13 million iPads, and 5.3 million Macs sold.
CEO Tim Cook said on a conference call with investors there was especially strong demand for the iPhone 7 Plus and that it made up a higher-than-expected share of sales. The average selling price of phones grew to $695 during the quarter, chief financial officer Luca Maestri said, up from $619 in the September quarter.
This earnings call is very important for Apple as it marks the company’s return to growth after consecutive quarters of decline.
Services, which include the App Store, iTunes, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud, hit $7.17 billion, above the $6.91 billion estimated by StreetAccount.
“Our outstanding business performance resulted in a new all-time record for earnings per share, and over $27 billion in operating cash flow,” said Luca Maestri. “We returned nearly $15 billion to investors through share repurchases and dividends during the quarter, bringing cumulative payments through our capital return program to over $200 billion.”
For its fiscal 2017 second quarter, Apple is promising a sustained trend of year-over-year growth by projecting the following:
- revenue between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion
- gross margin between 38 percent and 39 percent
- operating expenses between $6.5 billion and $6.6 billion
- other income/(expense) of $400 million
- tax rate of 26 percent
Cook says he’s optimistic about tax reform in the US happening this year, and that this might allow Apple to bring a lot of that money back home.
