It’s Another Blowout Quarter for iPhone Maker Apple

Apple’s latest earnings report was widely anticipated on Wall Street on Wednesday and the tech giant delivered big time when it finally reported.

It was another blowout quarter for the tech giant who saw sales go up 54%. The company had also authorized a staggering $90 billion in share buybacks.

Shares of the stock were rising over 4% in after-hours trading as the numbers were digested.

The company had reported double-digit growth in every single one of its product categories. The iPhone category was up 65.5% from last year, while its Mac and iPad sales were up 70.1% and nearly 79% on an annual basis, respectively.

For the second quarter, Apple reported earnings per share of $1.40, versus the 99 cents that had been estimated. Revenue at $89.58 billion was way ahead of the $77.36 billion that was expected and represented a growth of 53.7% YOY.

Revenue for the Iphone was at $47.94 billion compared to the $41.43 billion expected. This was a growth of 65.5% YOY. Services revenue at $16.90 billion beat the $15.57 billion expected, and was up 26.7% YOY. Other products revenue came in at $7.83 billion, higher than the $7.79 billion awaited and was a growth of 24% YOY. Mac revenue at $9.10 billion was significantly higher than the $6.86 billion estimated, and a growth of 70.1% YOY. iPad revenue was $7.80 billion compared to the $5.58 billion awaited for. This was a growth of 78.9% YOY. Gross margin for the quarter was 42.5% compared to 39.8% estimated.

The company also said that it would increase its dividend by 7% to $0.22 per share and authorized $90 billion in share buybacks. This is a lot higher than last year’s $50 billion outlay and 2019′s $75 billion.

There was no official guidance given for the quarter ending in June. In fact, Apple hasn’t offered any revenue guidance since the pandemic began and has cited uncertainty.

Apple CFO Luca Maestri however told analysts that the company expects June quarter revenue to rise by double digits year-over-year.
CEO Tim Cook said in a statement: “This quarter reflects both the enduring ways our products have helped our users meet this moment in their own lives, as well as the optimism consumers seem to feel about better days ahead for all of us.”

Cook said that the company’s growth in Macbooks was “fueled by” the company’s introduction of its Mac laptops that used its own M1 chips for longer battery life, instead of processors sold by Intel.

“We’re seeing strong first-time buyers on the Mac … it continues to run just south of 50%,” Cook told CNBC’s Josh Lipton. “And, in China, it’s even higher than that … it’s more around two-thirds. And that speaks to people preferring to work on the Mac.”

Subscriptions also increased exponentially. “We now have over 660 million paid subscriptions across the services on the platform, and that’s up 40 million from the previous quarter, which is an acceleration from 35 million,” Cook told CNBC.

“The App Store has been an economic miracle. Last year, the estimates are that there was over a half a trillion dollars of economic activity because of the store. And, so, this has been just an economic gamechanger for not only the United States, but several countries around the world. And, we’re going to go in and tell our story. And we’ll see where it goes. But, we’re confident,” Cook told CNBC.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.