Apple Posts Revenues of $58 Billion for March Quarter, Down 5% – Emphasizes Record Services Revenues and Raises Dividend [Update]

Apple announced Tuesday results for the March quarter, the company’s second fiscal quarter. Apple reported revenues of US$58 billion for the quarter, a number that was down 5% year over year. The company also reported earnings per share of $2.46, down 10% year over year. And in light of those numbers, Apple chose instead to emphasize record Services revenues of $11.5 billion. The company also announced a new $75 billion stock repurchase program and bumped its quarterly dividend to $0.77, up 5% and the seventh increase in seven years.

Wall Street was expecting Apple to report earnings per share just $2.37 and revenues of $57.4 billion, meaning the company beat expectations.

Shares of $AAPL ended the day at $200.67, a loss of $3.94  (-1.93%), on heavy volume of 43.5 million shares trading hands. The after hour markets, however, reacted positively to today’s announcement, where the stock was trading at $211.50, a gain of $10.83 (+5.40%) just before Apple’s quarterly conference call with analysts.

“Our March quarter results show the continued strength of our installed base of over 1.4 billion active devices, as we set an all-time record for Services, and the strong momentum of our Wearables, Home and Accessories category, which set a new March quarter record,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “We delivered our strongest iPad growth in six years, and we are as excited as ever about our pipeline of innovative hardware, software and services. We’re looking forward to sharing more with developers and customers at Apple’s 30th annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June.”

“We generated operating cash flow of $11.2 billion in the March quarter and continued to make significant investments in all areas of our business,” Apple CFO Luca Maestri said. “We also returned over $27 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. Given our confidence in Apple’s future and the value we see in our stock, our Board has authorized an additional $75 billion for share repurchases. We are also raising our quarterly dividend for the seventh time in less than seven years.”

[Update: This story was updated with additional details.]

*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a tiny, almost insignificant share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.