Apple reported earnings Thursday for the September quarter, the 4th fiscal quarter for the company. Apple reported earnings per share of US$1.24, on revenues of $83.4 billion. That’s a slight beat on Wall Street for earnings, where consensus was that Apple would post EPS of $1.23. But, Wall Street was expecting higher revenues of $84.67 billion. In the year ago quarter, Apple reported EPS of US$0.73 on revenue of $64.7 billion, and this year’s results are a record for the September quarter.
Shares of $AAPL ended the regular trading session Thursday higher at $152.57, a gain of $3.72 (+2.50%), on strong volume of 88.5 million shares trading hands. That gives $AAPL a market cap of $2.5 trillion, for those following along at home.
The after-hours market is so far down, with shares of $AAPL trading at $147.00, down $5.57 (-3.65%). News from the company’s conference call with analysts could also affect after hours trading one way or the other.
In a statement, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “This year we launched our most powerful products ever, from M1-powered Macs to an iPhone 13 lineup that is setting a new standard for performance and empowering our customers to create and connect in new ways. We are infusing our values into everything we make — moving closer to our 2030 goal of being carbon neutral up and down our supply chain and across the lifecycle of our products, and ever advancing our mission to build a more equitable future.”
Apple CFO Luca Maestri added, “Our record September quarter results capped off a remarkable fiscal year of strong double-digit growth, during which we set new revenue records in all of our geographic segments and product categories in spite of continued uncertainty in the macro environment. The combination of our record sales performance, unmatched customer loyalty, and strength of our ecosystem drove our active installed base of devices to a new all-time high. During the September quarter, we returned over $24 billion to our shareholders, as we continue to make progress toward our goal of reaching a net cash neutral position over time.”
Apple’s press release was shorter than it’s normally short quarter earnings press releases, and didn’t even note that the company is no longer offering guidance for the next quarter. Apple stopped offering that guidance earlier in the Coronavirus pandemic.
News coverage of the company’s results are mostly calling it a miss, with some reports noting the slight beat and slight miss nuance we lead our story with. Apple’s iPhone revenues were way up year over year, but more than $3 billion off expectations. We’ve seen some reports focusing on the idea that this indicated demand for iPhone 13 is strong, but that supply constraints held the company back during this quarter.
This article was updated with additional information.