Apple smashes it and beats expectations with best second quarter figures ever
The world's most valuable company has just outdone itself.
The figures
During the second quarter ending 28 March, Apple's revenue grew by 27 per cent to $58bn (£38bn), exceeding market expectations of $56bn.
The net profit of $13.6bn will also bring a smile to investors' faces, since it pushed earnings per share up by 40 per cent to $2.33, ahead of the predicted $2.16.
These results are big improvement from a revenue of $45.6bn and net profit of $10.2bn this time last year. Overall, this has been better than any second quarter in the company's history.
The company said it was sales of its iPhone, Mac and the App Store that drove its success over the three months. In particular, iPhone sales went up by a massive 40 per cent.
The company added that it would return another $70bn to shareholders, reaching a total payback of $200bn to shareholder by the end of March 2017. $103bn has already been returned since 2012 through buybacks and dividends.
In terms of the rest of the year, the company gave some insight into what it is expecting. It predicts a revenue of between $46bn and $48bn, with a gross margin of 38.5 per cent to 39.5 per cent.
Why it's interesting
This set of results is the first released by Apple since it launched its new generation phone last year, and the spike in sales reflects how well this has gone done with customers.
Shares in the company went up by 1.82 per cent to $132.65 following the release, continuing their upward trend – over the course of the last three months, share price has risen 19 per cent on the back of the new iPhone sales.
What Apple said
Chief executive Tim Cook said:
We’re seeing a higher rate of people switching to iPhone than we’ve experienced in previous cycles, and we’re off to an exciting start to the June quarter with the launch of Apple Watch.
In short
Things are looking up for Apple, with its new iPhone proving more popular than anyone could have imagined. It'll be interesting to see how the Apple Watch is affecting sales when the company's releases its next set of results.