14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has released its financial results for the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2018, revealing that the company posted its best September quarter ever despite stagnating iPhone sales.
Specifically, Apple reported $62.9 billion in revenue and $14.12 billion profit in FY18 Q4. The company sold a total of 46.89 million iPhones, 9.69 million iPads, and 5.3 million Macs.
In the same quarter a year ago, Apple’s revenue reached $52.6 billion with $10.7 billion profit. iPhone sales were almost at the same level with 46.7 million shipped units, while the company also sold 10.3 million iPads and 5.4 million Macs.
On the other hand, this is a significant improvement from the FY18 Q3 when Apple sold 41.3 million iPhones, 11.44 million iPads, and 3.7 million Macs. Revenue was at $53.3 billion with $11.5 billion profit.
The jump quarter-over-quarter was generated by the arrival of the new-generation iPhones unveiled on September 12. However, this quarter includes only the initial sales of iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, and a bigger growth is expected next quarter when iPhone XR shipments will also be included.
Record September quarter
Despite the slow sales, Apple says this is the best September quarter ever, with Tim Cook confirming that the company shipped its 2 billionth iOS device.
“We concluded a record year with our best September quarter ever, growing double digits in every geographic segment. We set September quarter revenue records for iPhone and Wearables and all-time quarterly records for Services and Mac,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO.
“We generated $19.5 billion in operating cash flow and returned over $23 billion to shareholders in dividends and share repurchases in the September quarter, bringing total capital returned in fiscal 2018 to almost $90 billion.”
Services have once again been one of the main catalysts of Apple’s performance, with revenue in this division reaching $10 billion, up from $7.9 billion in the same quarter a year ago.