Shares in Apple Inc. dropped over 6% on Friday following the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report on Thursday. Apple still remains the most valuable company based on stock market capitalization but it fell under the $1 trillion mark after the share decline.
Apple did report its best fourth-quarter ever with revenues of $62.9 billion, a 20% increase from a year ago. iPhone sales were 46.89 million in the quarter, up 29% from a year ago. However, this number was slightly below what Wall Street analysts were predicting. iPad sales were 9.7 million in the quarter, down 17% from last year. Mac sales were 5.3 million, up 3% from a year ago.
What spooked investors was Apple’s announcement that it would no longer release sales data for the iPhone, iPad and Macs after this year. Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri made the announcement in an investor conference call by saying sales data did not necessarily demonstrate the strength of Apple’s lineup but would continue to disclose product revenues. Maestri also cited Apple competitors which did not disclose sales figures.
“We concluded a record year with our best September quarter ever, growing double digits in every geographic segment. We set September quarter revenue records for iPhone and Wearables and all-time quarterly records for Services and Mac,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We generated $19.5 billion in operating cash flow and returned over $23 billion to shareholders in dividends and share repurchases in the September quarter, bringing total capital returned in fiscal 2018 to almost $90 billion.”
“We’re thrilled to report another record-breaking quarter that caps a tremendous fiscal 2018, the year in which we shipped our 2 billionth iOS device, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the App Store and achieved the strongest revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Over the past two months, we’ve delivered huge advancements for our customers through new versions of iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and Mac as well as our four operating systems, and we enter the holiday season with our strongest lineup of products and services ever.”
The Apple Services division hit $10 billion in the quarter, a record for the company. The division includes the App Store, subscriptions, Apple Music, Apple Care and Apple Pay.
Apple has released updated versions of its MacBook Pro laptops with faster performance and new pro features. The latest MacBook Pro models include the Touch Bar and feature 8th-generation Intel Core processors, with 6-core on the 15-inch model for up to 70 percent faster performance and quad-core on the 13-inch model for up to two […]
CUPERTINO — Apple announced a major expansion of its recycling programs, quadrupling the number of locations US customers can send their iPhone to be disassembled by Daisy, its recycling robot. Daisy will disassemble and recycle select used iPhones returned to Best Buy stores throughout the US and KPN retailers in the Netherlands. Customers can also […]
Working with the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Apple announced that the Health Records on iPhone feature will soon be available to veterans. For the first time, American veterans receiving care through the Veterans Health Administration will be able to securely view their health records directly in the Health app on their iPhone. “We […]
