Denying once again the fake news on the ghost of sales and blocks of production of the iPhone X, Apple recorded record numbers in the quarter just ended. The Cupertino colossus recorded quarterly revenues of $ 61.1 billion, up 16% from the same quarter last year, and profits of $ 13.8 billion, up 25% on an annual basis . Numbers immediately celebrated by the market, which has rewarded the Apple title with a jump of more than 6% on Wall Street in the After Hours, surpassing 175 dollars.
"We are excited to announce our best quarter of March ever, with strong growth in iPhone revenues, services and wearable devices," said Tim Cook, Apple CEO, "customers have chosen iPhone X more than any other iPhone every week in the March quarter, just as they did since its launch in the December quarter, and we have increased revenues in all our geographic segments, with growth of over 20% in Greater China and Japan. "
At the base of these numbers there are always the performances of the iPhone, which in the second quarter of the 2018 fiscal year of Apple (ended March 31) recorded sales for 52.2 million units and 38 billion dollars in turnover, putting sign an increase on a yearly basis of 3% in volume and 14% in value, thus highlighting a preference of customers towards the most expensive models such as iPhone X.
Strong growth (+ 31%) also for services, which generated a turnover of 9.2 billion dollars and are now firmly the second division for revenues for Apple, followed at a safe distance by the Mac computers that instead recorded a decrease in 3% in sales at unit level to keep revenues unchanged at 5.8 billion dollars, also in this highlighting an increase in the average price linked to consumer preference for more advanced and expensive models, namely the new MacBook and MacBook Pro generation instead of the MacBook Air now unchanged for many years.
Limited growth for the iPad, rose in the quarter by 2% in volume and 6% in value. A trend that could however find support in the new iPad introduced recently and characterized by more advanced performance and functionality at a lower price than the previous generation, an event almost unique in Apple's commercial policy. To underline the xploit of the Other division, under which Apple gathers the revenues generated by all the other products starting from Watch, Tv, accessories and in the last quarter also HomePod, the smart speaker that is opposed to Google Home and Amazon Alexa. In fact, the division posted a 38% jump, thus reaching a turnover of 4 billion dollars.
"During the quarter of March, our business performed extremely well, with a 30% increase in earnings per share and an operating cash flow of over 15 billion dollars", said Luca Maestri, cfo of Apple, " With the greater flexibility we now have from accessing our global liquidity, we can invest more efficiently in our operations in the US and work towards an optimal capital structure.With our confidence in Apple's future, we are pleased to announce that our Board has approved a new plan to repurchase $ 100 billion shares and a 16% increase in our quarterly dividend ". Apple will complete the execution of the previous repurchase of $ 210 billion shares during the third fiscal quarter. The board approved the distribution of a cash dividend of $ 0.73 per share payable on May 17, 2018 to shareholders registered at the close of May 14, 2018.
For the current quarter, the Apple board expects revenues between $ 51.5 billion and $ 53.5 billion, up sharply from $ 45.4 billion in the same period last year, and a gross margin between and 38.5%.