Californian tech giant Apple has reported a profit of US$8.5bn on revenues of US$42.1bn, driven by increased sales of iPhone and Mac products.
The revenues of US$42.1bn are up significantly from the revenues of US$37.5bn this time last year and profits of US$8.5bn are up a cool billion on the net profit of US$7.5bn recorded last year.
Apple is making a gross margin of 38pc on products, up from 37pc last year.
International sales outside the US accounted for 60pc of Apple’s revenue during the quarter.
As a result Apple’s board of directors has agreed to declare a cash dividend of 47 cents per share.
iPhone sales dominated the quarter with some 39m units sold, up from 33.7m last year, accounting for some US$23.6bn of revenue during the fourth quarter.
iPad sales, however, appear to be struggling, down to 12.3m units sold from 14m sold this time last year.
iPod devices are also on the decline, with unit sales down 10pc as 2.6m of the devices were sold compared to 3.4m a year ago.
Last week Apple took the wraps off a new generation of iPad devices – the iPad Air 2 and the iPad mini 3 – as well as revealing that Apple Pay goes live to the public along with iOS 8.1 this week and revealing a new, more powerful iMac with 5K Retina Display.
Biggest iPhone launch ever
Apple Q4 2013 financial results
“Our fiscal 2014 was one for the record books, including the biggest iPhone launch ever with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
“With amazing innovations in our new iPhones, iPads and Macs, as well as iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, we are heading into the holidays with Apple’s strongest product lineup ever. We are also incredibly excited about Apple Watch and other great products and services in the pipeline for 2015.”
Looking ahead to the first quarter of the new financial year Apple is forecasting revenues of between US$63.5bn and US$66.5bn, and a gross margin of between 37.5pc and 38.5pc.
“Our strong business performance drove EPS growth of 20 percent and a record $13.3 billion in cash flow from operations in the September quarter,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO.
We continued to execute aggressively against our capital return programme, spending over US$$20 billion in the quarter and bringing cumulative returns to US$94bn.”
