Apple has now officially opened its books and announced its results for its fourth fiscal quarter (third calendar quarter).
Apple has now officially opened the books and published the results for the first fiscal quarter of 2021 (fourth calendar quarter). Side note: Apple's fiscal year starts on October 1st and ends on September 30th. The promising Christmas quarter has brought the Cupertino-based company record sales. Apple has broken the 100 billion US dollar mark for the first time in the company's history. Various analysts had already predicted the record sales in advance. The iPhone 12 series and Apple's M1 Macs made it possible, among other things. Specifically, Apple generated sales of 111.4 billion US dollars, an increase of 21 percent compared to the previous year. Cupertino exceeded expectations with an EPS (earnings per share) of 1.68 US dollars - analysts forecast an EPS of 1.25 US dollars. The special feature: 65.6 billion US dollars were generated through iPhone sales alone. Apple boss Tim Cook expressed as follows:
Record sales: Apple shares remain unimpressed
This quarter for Apple would not have been possible without the tireless and innovative work of every Apple team member around the world. We are delighted by the enthusiastic customer response to the unmatched range of innovative products we delivered during a historic holiday season. We are also focused on how we can help the communities we serve thrive in strong and equitable ways through efforts like our Racial Equity and Justice Initiative and our multi-year commitment to invest $350 billion across the United States.
At the same time, Luca Maestri, CFO of Apple, explains:
Our business performance in the December quarter was driven by double-digit growth in every product category, resulting in all-time revenue records in each of our geographic segments and an all-time high for our installed base of active devices. These results helped us generate record cash flow of $38.8 billion. In addition, we returned more than $30 billion to our shareholders during the quarter as we remain committed to our goal of achieving a net cash neutral position over time.
Apple did not give a forecast for the current quarter. Despite the sensational record sales, the share price did not increase. The stock lost around 1.13 percent in after-hours trading, after a discount of 0.77 percent in regular trading. (Photo by darnellvfx / Bigstockphoto)
