Apple on Wednesday turned in an all-time record for December revenues of $111.4 billion, up 21% year-over-year. This is the first time Apple has ever topped $100 billion in revenues in one quarter. The company also reported all-time record earnings of $28.76 billion, up 29% year-over-year, while earnings-per-share (EPS) clocked in at $1.68, up 35% year-over-year.
Wall Street consensus expected revenues of $103.3 billion with earnings per share of $1.42. Shares of AAPL ended the regular trading session on Wednesday at $142.06, down $1.10 (-0.77%), on strong volume of 128.9 million shares trading hands. The after hours market reacted positively to the results, with shares trading at $142.30, up 0.240 (+0.17%). Investors had been expecting a good quarter and many of Wednesday’s results were already baked into the share price.
“This quarter for Apple wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless and innovative work of every Apple team member worldwide,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an uncharacteristically unspecific fluff quote. He added, “We’re gratified by the enthusiastic customer response to the unmatched line of cutting-edge products that we delivered across a historic holiday season. We are also focused on how we can help the communities we’re a part of build back strongly and equitably, through efforts like our Racial Equity and Justice Initiative as well as our multi-year commitment to invest $350 billion throughout the United States.”
“Our December quarter business performance was fueled by double-digit growth in each product category, which drove all-time revenue records in each of our geographic segments and an all-time high for our installed base of active devices,” Apple CFO Luca Maestri said in his own statement. “These results helped us generate record operating cash flow of $38.8 billion. We also returned over $30 billion to shareholders during the quarter as we maintain our target of reaching a net cash neutral position over time.”
Strong iPhone Sales Sales Drove Results
Sales of Apple’s new iPhone products largely drove quarterly results, with $65.60 billion in sales for that category. That’s up from last year’s $55.96 billion in iPhone sales. iPad revenue increased to $8.44 billion, up from $5.98 billion, and Mac revenue rose to $8.68 billion, up from $7.16 billion. Services were also up, with Apple reporting Services revenue of $15.76 billion, up from $12.72 billion.
The company also said that international sales accounted for 64 percent of the quarter’s revenue. The dividend was also set at US$.205 per share. Apple didn’t offer guidance for the March quarter—Apple stopped offering guidance in the first quarter of the pandemic in 2020.
This article has been updated with additional details.
Bryan:
This is truly depressing stuff. I don’t know how TC can even look himself in the mirror in the morning, let alone get out of bed. He, and his entire team, should be ashamed of themselves, from the C-suite to the janitorial staff. SJ handed them a company firing on all cylinders, and look at what they’ve done to it! They’ve expanded the product range, I mean, Pro iPads, different iPhones? Smart watches that they don’t even bother to call iWatches? And where’s the iPod Nano, huh? And…and what about my Apple laser printer? And never mind that we still don’t have Blue Ray in our Macs. At least we still have Intel. And those services; iCloud, Apple TV+ and all? So why isn’t my eWorld account working anymore, huh? It’s all gone to $#!*, I’m telling you. If they keep this up, I’m switching. I don’t know to what yet, but I’m definitely switching. That’ll show ‘em. And won’t they ever be sorry!
In all seriousness, this is simultaneously amazing and not at all surprising. The pandemic has created opportunities that Apple have exploited to everyone’s benefit, including their shareholders. They rightly understood that this was not a time to retreat, but to innovate our way out of crisis; innovation that requires state of the art products and services to both create and inspire.
Because Apple remain inveterate non-conventionalists, at least insofar as tech product/service corporate culture has been to date, it is doubtful that conventional market analysts and the Street will ever get Apple. Not that it matters anymore, inasmuch as Apple’s relationship with an ever expanding client base, vocal critics and occasional missteps aside, is the envy of the corporate world. And that is more valuable than any product line, and a priceless asset.