Apple revenues decline
January 30, 2019
Apple has announced financial results for its fiscal 2019 first quarter ended December 29th 2018. The tech giant posted quarterly revenue of $84.3 billion (€73.7bn), a decline of 5 per cent from the year-ago quarter, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $4.18, up 7.5 per cent. International sales accounted for 62 per cent of the quarter’s revenue.
Revenue from iPhone declined 15 per cent from the prior year, while total revenue from all other products and services grew 19 perc ent. Services revenue reached an all-time high of $10.9 billion, up 19 per cent over the prior year. Revenue from Mac and Wearables, Home and Accessories also reached all-time highs, growing 9 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively, and revenue from iPad grew 17 per cent.
“While it was disappointing to miss our revenue guidance, we manage Apple for the long term, and this quarter’s results demonstrate that the underlying strength of our business runs deep and wide,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Our active installed base of devices reached an all-time high of 1.4 billion in the first quarter, growing in each of our geographic segments. That’s a great testament to the satisfaction and loyalty of our customers, and it’s driving our Services business to new records thanks to our large and fast-growing ecosystem.”
“We generated very strong operating cash flow of $26.7 billion during the December quarter and set an all-time EPS record of $4.18,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We returned over $13 billion to our investors during the quarter through dividends and share repurchases. Our net cash balance was $130 billion at the end of the quarter, and we continue to target a net cash neutral position over time.”
eMarketer Principal Analyst Yoram Wurmser, commented: “Apple’s Q1 (holiday) earnings report didn’t hold many surprises. The headline number is the 15% YoY drop in iPhone revenue, which Apple largely attributed to problems in the Chinese market. On the bright side, many of its other devices did well, including iPads, wearables and iMacs. But the iPhone has been the big driver for Apple’s earning for the past decade, so investors will likely be curious to see how Apple plans to regain its momentum.”
Apple is preparing to launch its streaming service in the spring, to take on the likes of Netflix and Hulu.