Apple reported earnings Thursday for the December quarter, 2022’s 1st fiscal quarter for the company. Apple reported earnings per share of US$2.10 on $123.9 billion in revenues. That’s an all-time revenue record and a slight beat on Wall Street for earnings, where consensus was that Apple would post EPS of $1.89. Wall Street expected the Cupertino-based company to report revenues of $118.7 billion. In the year ago quarter, Apple reported EPS of US$1.68 on revenue of $111.4 billion, the first time the company topped $100 billion in revenue during a single quarter.
Shares of $AAPL ended the regular trading session Thursday lower at $159.22, a loss of $0.47 (-0.29%), on strong volume of 105.1 million shares trading hands. That gives $AAPL a current market cap of $2.6 trillion, up modestly from the previous quarter.
The after-hours market is so far up, with shares of $AAPL trading at $167.59, up $8.37 (+5.26%). 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, “We are gratified to see the response from customers around the world at a time when staying connected has never been more important. We are doing all we can to help build a better world — making progress toward our goal of becoming carbon neutral across our supply chain and products by 2030, and pushing forward with our work in education and racial equity and justice.”
Apple CFO Luca Maestri added, “The very strong customer response to our recent launch of new products and services drove double-digit growth in revenue and earnings, and helped set an all-time high for our installed base of active devices. These record operating results allowed us to return nearly $27 billion to our shareholders during the quarter, as we maintain our target of reaching a net cash neutral position over time.”
Apple stopped offering that guidance earlier in the Coronavirus pandemic. The company still won’t offer any idea of what it expects for the second quarter of 2022. However, Maestri noted the company expects another record-breaking quarter year-over-year as supply constraints ease up. Apple anticipates less revenue for 2Q22 than the first quarter, but stronger numbers than 4Q21.
News coverage of the company’s results are calling it “a historic quarter on strong demand for the iPhone 13 and services”. Apple’s iPhone revenues were quite a bit higher year over year, totaling $71.6 million. While iPad revenues were down over last year, mainly due to supply constraints, sales were still strong. In fact, Apple disclosed that almost half of new iPads sold were to customers new to the Apple-branded tablet.