Apple’s earnings barely beat Wall Street’s expectations for fourth-quarter revenue thanks to strong sales of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, which helped the company bring in $51.5 billion and quarterly net profit of $11.1 billion
The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus set a new launch weekend record of 13 million units sold, helping Apple finish the quarter with 48.5 million units sold. 2015 was Apple’s most successful financial year ever, leading Tim Cook to call it a “testament to the tremendous execution by our teams.”
“Fiscal 2015 was Apple’s most successful year ever, with revenue growing 28% to nearly $234 billion. This continued success is the result of our commitment to making the best, most innovative products on earth, and it’s a testament to the tremendous execution by our teams,” said Tim Cook in a statement released on Apple’s website.
“We are heading into the holidays with our strongest product lineup yet, including iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Apple Watch with an expanded lineup of cases and bands, the new iPad Pro and the all-new Apple TV which begins shipping this week.”
Wall Street expected Apple to report $51.04 billion in revenue for the quarter. EPS was projected at $1.88, but Apple topped it with $1.96. Apple managed to sell 48.5 million iPhones. iPad sales were still low with 9.88 million sold, while the Mac continues to defy expectations with 5.7 million units sold in Q4.
CFO Luca Maestri noted that Apple returned $17 billion to investors during the quarter through repurchases and dividends. The company has now completed over $143 billion of its $200 billion capital return program.
The following guidance is being provided by Apple for Q1 2016:
• revenue between $75.5 billion and $77.5 billion
• gross margin between 39 percent and 40 percent
• operating expenses between $6.3 billion and $6.4 billion
• other income/(expense) of $400 million
• tax rate of 26.2 percent
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
9 responses to “Apple tops estimates with $51.5 billion in revenue in Q4”
“Apple tops estimates with $51.5 billion in profit in Q4”
Of course it did. Go Tim, go! But likely, no matter what Apple posts by way of profits or economic health, it will never be good enough for the usual gang of ANALysts who expect more, more, more, forever, forever and endlessly. Greed rules the day on Wall Street, and Apple gets a disproportionate share of the scrutiny.
l just received my second paycheck of $6395,72 workin` only few h on my Iaptop` past 5 days. My divorced’ friend with 3 kids at home, made over $10k her 1st month. It’s great makin’ this much money” when other people have to work for so much Iess. Go 2 my profiIe’ site-link to see what I do…..
+.l/p
Yeah, I notice they usually take a little beating whenever they can’t show stellar super duper rainbows outta my a** numbers to the masters of the universe in their crystal towers in lower Manhattan. Meanwhile the world shrugs and starts queuing up for the next hot fruity gadget (myself included). iPad Pro here we GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
I •like• the way you think! :)
The stock takes hits on Apple’s never-ending streak of record-breaking profit, revenue, and earnings per share because Apple doesn’t exceed the analysts’ expectations by as much as the analysts expected Apple to exceed the analysts’ expectations.
And history repeats itself again: Apple reports fantastic numbers and the stock goes down. However, this says way more about the Wall Street idiots than it does about what great numbers Apple just reported.
Apple beat expectations in the last 10 years…that’s expected by WS anal lists. If Google or Microsoft just MEET forecasts, their stocks will jump 10-20% . WS got bribed from These companies probably.
Apple still shifting overpriced iPhones (myself included.) When is anyone going to pull Tim Cook on the fact that the oldest iPhone shipped with 16gb and that 16gb is now approx a 7th of the price it was in 2007. 16Gb for a 6s is a joke. 64gb should be the minimum at the 16gb price.
Most of iPhone sold to Enterprise, to outside US especially Asia and to women were 16GB….it can have 100 apps, few GB of media/pictures while still have few GB left. 16GB is more than enough for 50% of iPhone population. That’s fact.