Apple issued a press release about their quarterly results with the headline “Services Revenue Reaches New All-Time High of $11.5 Billion”.
“Our March quarter results show the continued strength of our installed base of over 1.4 billion active devices, as we set an all-time record for Services, and the strong momentum of our Wearables, Home and Accessories category, which set a new March quarter record,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We delivered our strongest iPad growth in six years, and we are as excited as ever about our pipeline of innovative hardware, software and services. We’re looking forward to sharing more with developers and customers at Apple’s 30th annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June.”
“We generated operating cash flow of $11.2 billion in the March quarter and continued to make significant investments in all areas of our business,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We also returned over $27 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. Given our confidence in Apple’s future and the value we see in our stock, our Board has authorized an additional $75 billion for share repurchases. We are also raising our quarterly dividend for the seventh time in less than seven years.”
iPhone revenue was down and revenue in China was down. Despite this the share price rallied.
Apple is still the largest US manufacturer of several electronic home devices; i.e. phones, watches, smart speakers, tablets, laptops and desktops. And just to put things into context, Apple Services is larger in terms of revenue than Amazon subscription services and Google ditto (Google in-app purchases, Google Play store, Google Cloud, YouTube subscriptions) combined.
I would not buy Apple at current levels, but I would hold on to it. In my opinion it has a wide moat in several product segments and geographic segments.
Reuters: Apple optimistic as accessories, iPhone price cuts help China sales
Bloomberg: Apple Forecast Beats Wall Street Estimates; Shares Rally
CNBC: Apple stock spikes after reporting strong guidance and earnings beat
CNBC: Apple is finally moving beyond the iPhone as the smartphone industry stalls out