14 DAY TRIAL // During one of its classic conference calls led by the CEO and CFO, Apple shared some impressive numbers with investors yesterday, posting a record March quarter and 15% growth in earnings-per-share (EPS).
“We’re very proud of our quarterly results,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
Not surprising really, since the Mac maker posted quarterly revenue of $45.6 billion (€32.9 billion) and quarterly net profit of $10.2 billion (€7.38 billion), which translates into $11.62 (€8.41) per diluted share.
Apple exceeded Wall Street estimates with these numbers, adding that gross margin was 39.3 percent (compared to 37.5 percent last year). 66 percent of the quarter’s revenue came from International sales, the Cupertino mammoth said.
Noting that he is very pleased with Apple’s “strong iPhone sales and record revenue from services,” CEO Tim Cook added, “We’re eagerly looking forward to introducing more new products and services that only Apple could bring to market.”
Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO who will soon leave the company, offering his position to rising star Luca Maestri, chimed in to say, “We generated $13.5 billion [€9.76 billion] in cash flow from operations and returned almost $21 billion [€15.1 billion] in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the March quarter.
“That brings cumulative payments under our capital return program to $66 billion[€47.7 billion].”
Apple revealed during the call that the company is now sitting on a $150.6 billion (€108.9 billion) cash pile and that it expects to utilize over $130 billion (€94 billion) of that cash under an expanded capital return program by the end of 2015.
The company’s Board of Directors has increased its share repurchase authorization to $90 billion (€65.1 billion).
“The Company expects to continue to utilize about $1 billion [€723,537,000] annually to net-share-settle vesting restricted stock units,” Apple said.
Other important numbers from the conference call include:
• The iPad’s current market share in U.S. education is 95% • iPads make 4x more web traffic generated than Android devices • Apple has acquired 24 companies in the past 18 months, and plans to engulf even more • There are now 800 million active iTunes accounts worldwide • 60 percent of iPhone 5c buyers were Android switchers • 62 percent switched from Android to the three-year old iPhone 4S • The iPhone’s current market share in Japan is 50% • Customer satisfaction for the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina Display is at 98% • Apple sold 20 million Apple TV units since debut (2007)