Apple turned in its March quarter earnings report on Thursday, with earnings and revenue that blew past Wall Street’s expectations. The company turned in revenues of US$58.3 billion for the quarter, up 1% year over year when Wall Street was expecting a 5% year-over-year decline. Earnings per share (EPS) came in at $2.55, a 4% increase year-over-year, beating Wall Street expectations of EPS of $2.26, which would have been a 10.8% decrease year over year.
The company also announced a 6% increase in its quarterly dividend to $0.82 per share for shareholders of record as of May 11, 2020. Apple’s board of directors also authorized an increase of $50 billion to the existing share repurchase program.
Wall Street consensus estimates expected Apple to turn in EPS of $2.26, a decline of 10.8% year-over-year. Consensus revenue expectations were at $54.6 billion, down 5% year-over-year. iPhone revenues were expected to be $27.9 billion, down 10% year-over-year, with iPad revenues at $4.33 billion, down 11% year-over-year. Wall Street expected wearables revenue to increase 35% year-over-year to $6.93 billion, with services increasing 10% year-over-year to $12.6 billion.
Shares of $AAPL closed higher during the regular session at US$293.80 per share, a gain of $6.07 (+2.11%), on strong volume of 39.5 million shares trading hands. The after hours market reacted positively to the news, too, sending shares of $AAPL to $297.84 per share, up $+4.04 (+1.38%). While Apple’s stock was up in the immediate aftermath of the earning’s report’s release, it eventually retreated. In the minutes before Apple’s earning call with analysts, $AAPL was trading at $289.20 per share in the after hours market, down $4.60 (-1.57%).
Apple Executives on COVID-19 Impact on Business
Apple’s executive fluff quotes focused on COVID-19, and made the case that its customers were depending on Apple during the pandemic.
“Despite COVID-19’s unprecedented global impact, we’re proud to report that Apple grew for the quarter, driven by an all-time record in Services and a quarterly record for Wearables,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said. “In this difficult environment, our users are depending on Apple products in renewed ways to stay connected, informed, creative, and productive. We feel motivated and inspired to not only keep meeting these needs in innovative ways, but to continue giving back to support the global response, from the tens of millions of face masks and custom-built face shields we’ve sent to medical professionals around the world, to the millions we’ve donated to organizations like Global Citizen and America’s Food Fund.”
Apple CFO Luca Maestri added, “We are proud of our Apple teams around the world and how resilient our business and financial performance has been during these challenging times. Our active installed base of devices reached an all-time high in all of our geographic segments and all major product categories. We also generated operating cash flow of $13.3 billion during the quarter, up $2.2 billion over a year ago. We are confident in our future and continue to make significant investments in all areas of our business to enrich our customers’ lives and support our long-term plans — including our five-year commitment to contribute $350 billion to the United States economy.”
More details to follow.
[Update: This article has been updated with additional information.]
Well to be honest my wife spent her stimulus check on a new iPad. Wasn’t the plan, but after running for the last five and a half years 24/7 (including the screen) it finally had enough. There was no question of do we do this now, it is an essential tool and had to be replaced.