Apple had guided for revenue between US$52.5 billion and $54.5 billion in the June quarter when it released March quarter earnings. Wall Street consensus expectations expected Apple to post revenues of US53.39 billion, below Apple’s actual results.
Shares of $AAPL traded lower on Tuesday, ending the day at US$208.78, down $0.90 (-0.43%), on heavy volume of 26.5 million shares trading hands. Shares shot higher in after hours trading to $215.56, a gain of $6.78 (+3.25%) as of this writing.
“This was our biggest June quarter ever—driven by all-time record revenue from Services, accelerating growth from Wearables, strong performance from iPad and Mac and significant improvement in iPhone trends,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “These results are promising across all our geographic segments, and we’re confident about what’s ahead. The balance of calendar 2019 will be an exciting period, with major launches on all of our platforms, new services and several new products.”
Apple CFO Luca Maestri added, “Our year-over-year business performance improved compared to the March quarter and drove strong operating cash flow of $11.6 billion. We returned over $21 billion to shareholders during the quarter, including $17 billion through open market repurchases of almost 88 million Apple shares, and $3.6 billion in dividends and equivalents.”
Apple guided for revenue in the September quarter between $61 billion and $64 billion, which is better than consensus estimates coming into today’s earnings report. Wall Street had been expecting revenues of $61.09 billion for the September quarter, the very bottom of Apple’s guidance.
The company also guided for gross margin between 37.5 percent and 38.5 percent—Apple reported gross margins of 38.3% in the year-ago quarter. Other guidance includes operating expenses between $8.7 billion and $8.8 billion, other income/(expense) of $200 million, and a tax rate of approximately 16.5 percent.
*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.