Apple blew past Wall Street projections for its first fiscal quarter of 2021 thanks to a record haul for its latest iPhone during the holiday shopping period.
Wall Street had forecast Q1 earnings of $1.41 per share for Apple on $103.3 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate compiled by Yahoo Finance. This afternoon, Apple reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.68 on $111.4 billion in revenue, also a record. It was the first time Apple posted a quarterly revenue above $100 billion
Apple released the iPhone 12 a bit later in the year when compared with its previous device launches, nabbing more than $65 billion in the quarter. That topped the previous high of $61.58 billion in iPhone sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2018. Continuing Apple’s record quarter, services revenue for the period rose 24% to $15.8 billion, which was also its best-ever performance in that segment.
“This quarter for Apple wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless and innovative work of every Apple team member worldwide,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re gratified by the enthusiastic customer response to the unmatched line of cutting-edge products that we delivered across a historic holiday season. We are also focused on how we can help the communities we’re a part of build back strongly and equitably, through efforts like our Racial Equity and Justice Initiative as well as our multi-year commitment to invest $350 billion throughout the United States.”
“Our December quarter business performance was fueled by double-digit growth in each product category, which drove all-time revenue records in each of our geographic segments and an all-time high for our installed base of active devices,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “These results helped us generate record operating cash flow of $38.8 billion. We also returned over $30 billion to shareholders during the quarter as we maintain our target of reaching a net cash neutral position over time.”