With shares of Apple currently trading at an all-time high, Apple this afternoon posted its earnings report for its second fiscal quarter of 2017. Per usual, the company raked in billions on the back of strong, but slightly disappointing, iPhone sales. For the quarter gone by, Apple managed to generate $52.9 billion in revenue with earnings per share checking in at $2.10
By way of comparison, Apple during the same quarter a year-ago posted quarterly revenue of $50.6 billion, net income of $10.5 billion and EPS of $1.90.
Of course, Apple’s earnings report can only be viewed properly within the context of Wall Street expectations. As we’ve seen time and time again, even a stellar earnings report can send a company’s shares tumbling if they don’t impress investors, no matter how arbitrary their expectations may be. That said, in the build-up to Apple’s recent earnings report, analysts on Wall St. were anticipating Apple to post revenue of $53 billion and EPS of $2.02.
“We are proud to report a strong March quarter, with revenue growth accelerating from the December quarter and continued robust demand for iPhone 7 Plus,” Tim Cook said in a press release. “We’ve seen great customer response to both models of the new iPhone 7 (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition and we’re thrilled with the strong momentum of our Services business, with our highest revenue ever for a 13-week quarter.”
As the primary source of Apple’s revenue — not to mention the reason why Apple now has more than $250 billion in the bank — investors will undoubtedly examine quarterly iPhone sales with a laser-like focus.
To this point, Apple over the last three months sold 50.7 million iPhones, compared to 51.1 million iPhones during the same quarter a year-ago. While not a drastic drop — just about 1% — that’s certainly not something investors like to see.
As for how other items in Apple’s product lineup performed, the company sold 8.9 million iPads and 4.1 million Macs. In contrast, Apple in the year-ago quarter sold 10.2 million iPads and 4 million Macs. Year over year, iPad sales dropped by 13% while Mac sales rose slightly by 4%.
While Apple still refuses to divulge Apple Watch sales, revenue from the company’s “Other Products” category checked in at $2.8 billion, marking a 31% increase year over year. Revenue from Apple’s burgeoning services division, meanwhile, increased by 18% year over year.
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