Apple is reaching new heights as the pandemic continues to highlight the necessity of having smartphones. It seems that Apple’s golden run continues, after the Cupertino-based tech giant reported strong fiscal third-quarter earnings for this year on Tuesday, exceeding all expectations set by Wall Street. Not only did Apple report $81.4 billion in revenue (a year-over-year increase of 36% and beating Wall Street’s estimate of $73.3 billion), it also recorded profits of $21.74 billion and earnings-per-share (EPS) of $1.30, beating the estimation of EPS of $1.01.
This is a significant rise from the $59.7 billion the firm had raised in revenue and $11.25 billion in profits for the same quarter last year. This time, Apple did not provide guidance for the third quarter due to uncertainties caused by the pandemic.
In a press release, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “This quarter, our teams built on a period of unmatched innovation by sharing powerful new products with our users, at a time when using technology to connect people everywhere has never been more important. We’re continuing to press forward in our work to infuse everything we make with the values that define us — by inspiring a new generation of developers to learn to code, moving closer to our 2030 environment goal, and engaging in the urgent work of building a more equitable future.”
The record quarter can be attributed to the rising popularity of iPhones, which have become more than a household name and evolve into a part and parcel of life. 5G has shown the way, leading iPhone sales from $26 billion to $39.57 billion, exceeding market expectations of $34.01 billion, a year-over-year increase of 49.78%. iPhone sales accounted for 48.6 of the total revenue.
Apple registered $14.76 billion in sales in the Greater China region (which includes not only the mainland but Taiwan and Hong Kong as well), an increase of 58% from the same quarter in 2020.
Over the past year, the company’s shares have provided a total return of 55.9%. Its services revenue (which includes Apple services like Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, and Apple TV+, AppleCare, advertising services, cloud services, and other services, including Apple Card and Apple Pay) for the quarter registered year-over-year growth of 32.9% to come to $17.5 billion for the quarter.
“Our record June quarter operating performance included new revenue records in each of our geographic segments, double-digit growth in each of our product categories, and a new all-time high for our installed base of active devices,” CFO Luca Maestri said. “We generated $21 billion of operating cash flow, returned nearly $29 billion to our shareholders during the quarter, and continued to make significant investments across our business to support our long-term growth plans.”
On a follow-up call with investors, he noted that they expected revenue growth to be lower than the June quarter, citing issues including foreign exchange rates with the US dollar, a slow down in the growth rate of services, and continued supply chain issues for its hardware offerings.
Apple’s earnings report for the next quarter is estimated to be released on October 27.
