It’s no secret that Apple has boatloads of cash, but sometimes it can be difficult to truly grasp just how profitable Apple has become over the past few years. Sure, we know that Apple has hundreds of billions of dollars in the bank, and sure, we know that Apple retail stores generate more revenue per square foot than any other store on the planet. These quirky tidbits, however interesting they may be, still fail to illustrate the money-making juggernaut that Apple has become.
In light of that, it might be more instructive to look at some of Apple’s competition in the tech space for some requisite context. Trying to make sense of $200 billion in the bank might be a challenge, but comparing Apple’s profitability to some of the top tech companies in the world is likely to paint a much clearer picture.
With that said, CNBC recently posted a rather fascinating tidbit about Apple’s ability to make a profit. Apple, during its recent March quarter, generated more in profits than Amazon has managed to accumulate across its entire lifetime. Put differently, Apple in just three months time took home more money than Amazon has managed to do over the last 21 years combined.
That factoid is absolutely astounding, and really helps to illustrate just how smoothly Apple is run these days.
The smartphone maker generated a $48.35 billion in profit during its fiscal 2017 and made $13.8 billion in net income during the March 2018 quarter.
In comparison, Amazon’s total net income since inception is about $9.6 billion. The number was calculated by adding up all of Amazon’s annual net income figures since its inception to the company’s $1.6 billion profit in the March 2018 quarter.
Of course, it’s not as if anyone should feel bad for Amazon or its investors given that Amazon’s share price is now in the $1600 range with a rather sizable P/E ratio of 253. By way of contrast, the P/E ratios of Apple, Microsoft and Google are 17.4, 27.2, and 29, respectively.
