Apple this afternoon posted its earnings results for the recent March quarter and, as we’ve come to expect, the company remains a money-making machine. Over the past quarter, Apple generated $61.1 billion in revenue with earnings per share checking in at $2.73 Ahead of Apple’s earnings report, analysts on Wall St. were anticipating revenue to fall somewhere in the $61 billion range and EPS to be about $2.69.
As a point of reference, Apple during the same quarter a year-ago posted revenue of $52.9 billion and earnings per share checking in at $2.10. Going back a bit further, Apple during its March 2016 quarter posted revenue of $50.6 billion and EPS of $1.90.
Of course, with the iPhone still accounting for the vast majority of Apple’s revenue, analysts tend to gauge Apple’s financial health by closely keeping tabs on quarterly iPhone sales.
So how did Apple do?
Well, amid reports that iPhone X sales have been somewhat disappointing, cumulative iPhone sales for the quarter checked in at 52.2 million units. Analysts, meanwhile, were anticipating iPhone sales to fall in the 53 million range. By way of comparison, Apple during the same quarter a year-ago sold 50.7 million iPhones.
“We’re thrilled to report our best March quarter ever, with strong revenue growth in iPhone, Services and Wearables,” Tim Cook said in a press release. “Customers chose iPhone X more than any other iPhone each week in the March quarter, just as they did following its launch in the December quarter. We also grew revenue in all of our geographic segments, with over 20% growth in Greater China and Japan.”
“Our business performed extremely well during the March quarter, as we grew earnings per share by 30 percent and generated over $15 billion in operating cash flow,” Apple CFO Luca Maestri added.
Incidentally, with Apple now having more cash at its disposal thanks to the Republican tax plan, Apple announced a 16% increase to its quarterly dividend.
Regarding the rest of Apple’s product line, iPad and Mac sales checked in at 9.1 million and 4.07 million units, respectively. Notably, revenue from Apple’s ‘Other Products’ category — which includes the Apple Watch, the HomePod, the
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