Apple reports record — breaking Q1 2021 earnings

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Apple has officially announced their results for the first fiscal quarter of 2021. Through their official statement, Apple has reported a record-breaking $111.44 billion in revenue, with a net quarterly profit of $28.76 billion for Q1 of 2021. This represents a growth of 21% when compared to last year's earnings. Earnings per diluted share also increased by 35%, from $1.25 (per share) reported last year, to $1.68 (per share). The gross margin for the quarter saw an increase of 39.8%, rising from $35.2 billion (in the year-ago quarter) to $44.3 billion. Moreover, international sales accounted for 64% of revenue. Apple declared that this is the best quarter ever in their history, when looked at in terms of revenue and profit.

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.

The company said their record-breaking performance was largely accomplished with the launch of iPhone 12 series back October, 2020. iPhone 12 line-ups’ sales reached $65.6 billion, up from $56 billion last year. The iPad also upped its game with a reported revenue of $8.44 billion, an 11.2% increase on the $5.98 billion reported last year. In addition, Macs saw an increase as well, with revenues going from $7.2 billion (reported last year) to $8.68 billion, an increase of nearly 18%. Among other things, Apple Services too saw a growth of 41%, resulting in revenues of $15.76 billion when compared to last year’s statistics. Lastly, Apple’s wearables, home, and accessories businesses also continued to rise - from $10.1 billion in Q1 of 2020 to $12.97 billion this quarter.

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.

Finally, Apple concluded the earnings call by not issuing any guidance for the current quarter ending in March. Apple has been doing this for several quarters now, due to the continued uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. A full report of Apple’s fiscal quarter earnings can be found on Apple Newsroom.

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Published to Apple Scoop on 30th January, 2021.