Apple got down to work yesterday and gave us the financial results obtained in this second quarter of the year. Based on what can be seen in this report, sales grow 16% and earnings per share 30%, setting new records for this March quarter.
We do not have to remember that the Cupertino firm closes the quarters differently from the rest of the companies and in this case, on March 31, Q2 ended. With really good numbers and quarterly sales of $ 61.100 billion, growing 16 percent over the same period of the previous year. It also earns a quarterly net profit of $ 2,73 per share, which represents a growth of 30 percent in the shares.
65% of quarterly sales have been made by Apple outside the US
- Income between $ 51.500 and 53.500 billion
- Gross margin between 38 percent and 38,5 percent
- Operating expenses between $ 7.700 billion and $ 7.800 billion
- Other income / (expense) of $ 400 million
- Approximate tax rate of 14,5 percent
In any case the words of Tim Cook, CEO of the company are clear:
We are pleased to report the best March quarter to date, with strong revenue growth for iPhone, Services, and Wearables. Customers have chosen the iPhone X over any other iPhone for every week of the March quarter, just as they did after its launch in the December quarter. We have also increased revenues in all our geographic areas, with growth of over 20% in China and Japan.
By your side Luca Maestri, who is Apple's CFO:
Our business performance has been exceptionally good during the March quarter: earnings per share have grown 30 percent and we have generated more than $ 15.000 billion of operating cash flow. Thanks to the greater flexibility we now have with access to our global cash, we are able to invest more efficiently in our US operations and work towards a more optimal capital structure. Given our confidence in the future of Apple, we are pleased to announce that the Board of Directors has approved a new share buyback authorization for $ 100.000 billion, as well as a 16% increase in the quarterly dividend.
The company will complete the execution of the previous share buyback authorization, worth $ 210.000 billion, during the third quarter of the fiscal year. Since the inception of the equity return program in August 2012 through March 2018, Apple has returned $ 275.000 billion to shareholders, including $ 200.000 billion in share buybacks. The Management Committee and Board of Directors will continue to regularly analyze each element of the capital return program and plan to offer updates to the program on an annual basis. You can listen to the whole report again of results directly from this link.
