Apple today announced its financial results for its fiscal 2021 second quarter ended March 27, 2021. The Company posted a March quarter record revenue of $89.6 billion, up 54% year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.40. International sales accounted for 67% of the quarter’s revenue.
Gross margin for the quarter was 42.5%, compared to 38.4% in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 67% of revenue. Apple’s Mac and Services revenue set all-time records for the quarter, while overall revenue set a March quarter record.
“This quarter reflects both the enduring ways our products have helped our users meet this moment in their own lives, as well as the optimism consumers seem to feel about better days ahead for all of us,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Apple is in a period of sweeping innovation across our product lineup, and we’re keeping focus on how we can help our teams and the communities where we work emerge from this pandemic into a better world. That certainly begins with products like the all-new iMac and iPad Pro, but it extends to efforts like the 8 gigawatts of new clean energy we’ll help bring onto the grid and our $430 billion investment in the United States over the next 5 years.”
“We are proud of our March quarter performance, which included revenue records in each of our geographic segments and strong double-digit growth in each of our product categories, driving our installed base of active devices to an all-time high,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “These results allowed us to generate operating cash flow of $24 billion and return nearly $23 billion to shareholders during the quarter. We are confident in our future and continue to make significant investments to support our long-term plans and enrich our customers’ lives.”
Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.22 per share of the Company’s common stock, an increase of 7%. The dividend is payable on May 13, 2021, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 10, 2021. The board of directors has also authorized an increase of $90 billion to the existing share repurchase program.
As they’ve done for the past several quarters, Apple is once again not issuing any guidance for Q3 2021 ending in March, due to the uncertainty surrounding the global COVID-19 pandemic’s impact.