Apple just posted its earnings report for fiscal Q2 of 2015 and, as expected, the company reported yet another monster quarter. For the first three months of the calendar year, Apple posted earnings of $2.33 per share on the back of $58 billion in revenue. All in all, Apple’s March quarter was exceptionally strong; Wall Street analysts anticipated EPS of $2.14 on $55.96 billion in sales.
“The tremendous customer demand for our products and services in the March quarter drove revenue growth of 27 percent and EPS growth of 40 percent,” Apple CFO Luca Maestri said in a press release. “Cash flow from operations was also outstanding at $19.1 billion
For the quarter, Apple netted $13.6 billion in profits, setting a new Q2 record in the process.
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Leading the charge last quarter, per usual, were exceptionally strong iPhone sales fueled by ongoing strong demand for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. During the company’s March quarter, Apple sold an astounding 61 million iPhones; meanwhile, analysts were anticipating quarterly iPhone sales of 58.1 million units.
By way of contrast, Apple sold 43.7 million iPhones during the same quarter a year ago. Year over year, Apple’s iPhone sales increased by a whopping 40%.
Also helping out Apple’s bottom line were considerably strong Mac sales of 4.5 million units. During the same quarter last year, Mac sales checked in at 4.1 million units. Clearly, while most of the PC industry is experiencing a decline in growth, Apple’s Mac division remains impressively resilient.
Now the same can’t be said for Apple’s trusty iPad. Despite an attractive iPad lineup, iPad sales fell from 16.3 million units in Q2 2014 to 12.6 million units in the quarter gone by. Analysts expected iPad sales to come in at 13.6 million units in Apple’s second fiscal quarter of 2015.
Circling back to positive news for Apple investors, the company also announced that it plans to expand its capital return program yet again, this time increasing its share buyback program from $90 billion to $140 billion. Apple is also raising its dividend payout to $0.52 a share. By March 2017, Apple said that it plans to have spent more than $200 billion across stock buybacks and dividend payouts.
As for money in the bank, Apple now has a ridiculous $193.5 billion in cash on hand and other securities.
Apple shares hit record highs during Monday’s after-hours session.
