Apple on Thursday announced its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2018. The iPhone maker earned $88.3 billion in revenue, an increase of 13% from the year-ago quarter and an all-time record, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.89, up 16%, also an all-time record. International sales accounted for 65% of the quarter’s revenue.
“We’re thrilled to report the biggest quarter in Apple’s history, with broad-based growth that included the highest revenue ever from a new iPhone lineup. iPhone X surpassed our expectations and has been our top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in November,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve also achieved a significant milestone with our active installed base of devices reaching 1.3 billion in January. That’s an increase of 30 percent in just two years, which is a testament to the popularity of our products and the loyalty and satisfaction of our customers.”
“Thanks to great operational and business performance, we achieved all-time record profitability during the quarter, with EPS up 16 percent,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “Cash flow from operations was very strong at $28.3 billion, and we returned $14.5 billion to investors through our capital return program.”
Apple sold 77.3 million iPhones, compared to 78.3 million in the year-ago quarter. iPad sales inched up to 13.2 million, up from 13.1 million a year ago, and Mac sales slid to 5.1 million from 5.4 million.
Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2018 second quarter:
- revenue between $60 billion and $62 billion
- gross margin between 38 percent and 38.5 percent
- operating expenses between $7.6 billion and $7.7 billion
- other income/(expense) of $300 million
- tax rate of approximately 15 percent
Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.63 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on February 15, 2018 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on February 12, 2018.
