Huge revenues as Apple reports $18.4 billion profit, the largest in its history
Tech super star Apple has reported record quarterly results, making $18.4 billion profit on $75.9 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2016.
The figures are up from $18 billion profit on $74.6 billion in revenue, and are record earnings for the company.
"Our team delivered Apple's biggest quarter ever, thanks to the world's most innovative products and all-time record sales of iPhone, Apple Watch and Apple TV," says Tim Cook, Apple's CEO.
"The growth of our Services business accelerated during the quarter to produce record results, and our installed base recently crossed a major milestone of one billion active devices.
Gross margin for the quarter was 40.1% compared to 39.9% in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 66% of revenue.
"Our record sales and strong margins drove all-time records for net income and EPS in spite of a very difficult macroeconomic environment," explains Luca Maestri, Apple's CFO. "We generated operating cash flow of $27.5 billion during the quarter, and returned over $9 billion to investors through share repurchases and dividends," he says.
"We have now completed $153 billion of our $200 billion capital return programme.
Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2016 second quarter:
- revenue between $50 billion and $53 billion
- gross margin between 39 percent and 39.5 percent
- operating expenses between $6 billion and $6.1 billion
- other income/(expense) of $325 million
- tax rate of 25.5 percent
Apple's board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $.52 per share of the Company's common stock. The dividend is payable on February 11, 2016, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on February 8, 2016.
