Following the release of Apple’s fiscal Q2 2014 financial numbers on Wednesday, company executives participated in a conference call with industry analysts and the media. Participating in the call were Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer, and Corporate Comptroller Luca Maestri. Highlights follow…
Apple’s $45.6 billion in revenue was a new March quarter record, and the highest-ever non-holiday quarter.
Earnings per share was the highest growth rate in the last six quarters.
The demand for each iPhone model is stronger than its predecessor. The company gained share in US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Vietnam and Greater China. And, there was a new all-time record for sales in BRIC countries. (Brazil, Russia, India, China).
Apple now has 800 million iTunes accounts. Most of those have credit cards attached.
Apple gained share in the computer market, defying industry trends with growth in the face of a contracting market.
Tim Cook said while iPad sales came in at high end of Apple’s internal expectations the company realizes the numbers were lower than analysts expected. Cook said the difference can be explained by two factors: Apple significantly increased iPad channel inventory in March 2013 quarter while this year, they significantly reduced it. Second, Apple ended the December quarter with a substantial backlog of iPad mini inventory that was shipped in the March quarter. The company ended December this year in a supply/demand balance.
Apple opened their first stores in Brazil and Turkey, opening stores in 15 countries. New retail and online head Angela Ahrendts will join Apple next week.
Two-thirds of those registering an iPad in the last six months were new iPad users. Half of those registering iPhones were new iPhone users.
Apple saw an increase of 6.3 million iPhones from last year, for a 17% growth rate. China Mobile helped the strong growth.
Apple’s iTunes Stores generated $5.2 billion in billings, that’s up 24% year-over-year. App downloads top a cumulative 70 billion.
The iPad generated four times the mobile web traffic than all Android tablets combined.
Of those planning to purchase a tablet in the next 90 days, two-thirds plan to buy an iPad.
At the end of March 2014, the company spent $46 billion in their $60 billion share repurchase program.
Apple is one of the largest dividend payers in the world, paying $11 billion in dividends per year.
Apple’s domestic cash pile is down to $11 billion this year. The company will hold sufficient domestic cash to ensure liquidity.
The company believes repatriating any foreign cash under the current U.S. tax law would incur significant tax consequences, which isn’t in the interest of stock holders. Apple intends to access the debt markets again in order to execute their capital return program.
