Apple Reports Record Holiday Quarter Earnings

Buoyed by iPhone sales in the holiday season, Apple posted a record revenue of $88.3 billion — a 13 percent increase from a year-ago — for the first quarter of fiscal 2018 that ended on December 30. According to the company, it now has 1.3 billion active installed base of devices globally. Apple’s earnings per share rose 16 percent to $3.89 which is also a record. International sales accounted for 65 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

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“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,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement late on Thursday. “iPhone X surpassed our expectations and has been our top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in November,” Cook added, allaying reports that iPhone X has not done well since its launch.

Apple’s cash reserves reached $285.1 billion in the quarter. “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 programme,” Maestri added.

For its fiscal 2018 second quarter, Apple forecasts revenue between $60 billion and $62 billion. Apple sold 77.3 million iPhones in the holiday quarter. “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,” Cook said.

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