By Alex Brooks Quarterly iPhone Unit Shipments (up to Q215)
Apple today announced financial results for its second fiscal quarter of 2015 which ran from the end of December, 2014 until March end.For the quarter Apple posted revenue of $58 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.6 billion, or $2.33 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $45.6 billion and net profit of $10.2 billion, or $1.67 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.
Gross margin was 40.3 percent compared to 39.3 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 69 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
Apple reported the following number of shipments for its products during the quarter:
61.17 million iPhones compared to 43.71 million in the year-ago-quarter
12.6 million iPads compared to 16.35 million in the year-ago-quarter
4.56 million Macs compared to 4.13 million in the year-ago quarter
Internet services, led by sales of Apps on the iOS and Mac App Store, Apple Pay, and others generated revenue of $4.996bn compared to $4.573bn in the year-ago quarter
“We are thrilled by the continued strength of iPhone, Mac and the App Store, which drove our best March quarter results ever,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re seeing a higher rate of people switching to iPhone than we’ve experienced in previous cycles, and we’re off to an exciting start to the June quarter with the launch of Apple Watch.”
“The tremendous customer demand for our products and services in the March quarter drove revenue growth of 27 percent and EPS growth of 40 percent,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “Cash flow from operations was also outstanding at $19.1 billion.”
Apple provided the following guidance for its fiscal 2015 third quarter which ends in June:
revenue between $46 billion and $48 billion
gross margin between 38.5 percent and 39.5 percent
operating expenses between $5.65 billion and $5.75 billion
other income/(expense) of $350 million
tax rate of 26.3%
Apple today announced that its Board of Directors has authorised an increase of more than 50 percent to the Company’s programme to return capital to shareholders. Under the expanded program, Apple plans to utilise a cumulative total of $200 billion of cash by the end of March 2017. From the inception of its capital return programme in August 2012 through March 2015, Apple has returned over $112 billion to shareholders, including $80 billion in share repurchases.
Analysis of Earnings and Investor’s Call
Apple’s incredible earnings continue to be tainted by a continued decline in iPad sales, dropping from 16 million to 12 million in the just gone March quarter. However, Apple smashed its March quarter record led by huge iPhone sales, Mac and App Stores that performed 27% year-over-year revenue growth.
On iPad sales Cook confirmed that the sales were being cannibalised by both the iPhone and the Mac (“We’ve never worried about that, it is what it is”). However, according to Cook if you dig below the headline data it’s clear that things will stabilise but unsure when. Additionally things like first time buyer rates are above the 40% mark in the US, in China that number is over 70%. With customer satisfaction at 100% and intent to buy very high confidence remains high at apple.
Cook did not want to predict when the iPad would begin growing again, but strongly believes that it will.
iPhone made up 69% of Apple’s total revenue, with the average selling price of the iPhone was $659 a marked increase on estimates from analysts and demonstrating that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ mix continues to not be imbalanced. On the earnings call Tim Cook put growth in iPhone sales down to more switchers than estimated, ie those moving from other platforms outperformed Apple’s expectations.
Cook explained that iPhone grew 40% but IDC predicted the market growth to be 16%, with Apple performing “extremely well” in emerging markets. Cook extremely pleased with switcher numbers but also first-time buyers remain strong, there’s nothing not to like in the numbers Cook explained. Cook also predicted that 20% of the existing iPhone owner market had moved over to the iPhone 6/6+, clearly leaving plenty of head room for upgrades.
For the first time ever Apple sold more iPhones in the China area than it did in the United States, subsequently revenue grew 71% to $16.8 billion.
Internet services also helped lead Apple’s success with revenue growing to an all time high of $5 billion, up 9% year-over-year. The App Store was particularly strong with revenue up 29%. Apple noted in the earnings call that Apple’s App Store had 77% more revenue that Google’s Play Store.
On Apple Watch the company was relatively quiet, with investors asking few questions. However, Apple’s guidance gave clues to lower gross margin for the device, Cook confirmed that gross margin would be lower than the company average.
Source: World of Apple
