Image by Ben Miller shows Moscone Center Worldwide Developers Conference 2011/Wikimedia
Apple is producing a steady stream of upbeat news for its growth, investors and the overall U.S economic scenario.
The company is repatriating $100 billion from overseas, motivated by President Donald Trump’s tax reforms. The tech giant posted a revenue of $61.1 billion for second quarter of 2018, an increase of 16 percent from the year-ago quarter. And the investors are responding with a roaring interest, with Warren Buffet buying an additional $75 million Apple shares.
This week the company announced financial results for its fiscal 2018 second quarter that ended March 31, 2018, with quarterly revenue of $61.1 billion, an increase of 16 percent from the year-ago quarter, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.73, up 30 percent. Additionally, its international sales accounted for 65 percent of the quarter’s revenue despite only a small hike in iPhone sales.
“We’re thrilled to report our best March quarter ever, with strong revenue growth in iPhone, Services and Wearables,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said, according to a company statement.
“Customers chose iPhone X more than any other iPhone each week in the March quarter, just as they did following its launch in the December quarter. We also grew revenue in all of our geographic segments, with over 20% growth in Greater China and Japan.”
“Our business performed extremely well during the March quarter, as we grew earnings per share by 30 percent and generated over $15 billion in operating cash flow,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO.
“With the greater flexibility we now have from access to our global cash, we can more efficiently invest in our US operations and work toward a more optimal capital structure. Given our confidence in Apple’s future, we are very happy to announce that our Board has approved a new $100 billion share repurchase authorization and a 16 percent increase in our quarterly dividend.”
Apple says it will complete the execution of the previous $210 billion share repurchase authorization during the third fiscal quarter.
The company’s Board has declared a cash dividend of $0.73 per share of Apple’s common stock payable on May 17, 2018 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 14, 2018.
The Company also expects to continue to net-share-settle vesting restricted stock units, a news release says.
Since the launch of its capital return program in August 2012 through March 2018, Apple says it has returned $275 billion to shareholders, including $200 billion in share repurchases.
The management team and the Board will continue to review each element of the capital return program regularly and plan to provide an update on the program on an annual basis, the company said.
Apple has released the following guidance for its fiscal 2018 third quarter as :
- revenue between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion
- gross margin between 38 percent and 38.5 percent
- operating expenses between $7.7 billion and $7.8 billion
- other income/(expense) of $400 million
- tax rate of approximately 14.5 percent
