Apple Announces Record Q2 Earnings Selling more iPhones in China than US

Strong performance of iPhone, Mac and App Store drives 27% revenue growth and 40% EPS growth, setting new second quarter records.

Apple continues to break the records of their quarterly earnings. The company follows the most profitable quarter of any publicly traded company with the best Q2 Apple ever had. 

Apple posted quarterly revenue of $58 billion and quarterly net profit of $13.6 billion, or $2.33 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $45.6 billion and net profit of $10.2 billion, or $1.66 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.8% compared to 39.3% in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 69% of the quarter’s revenue.

“We are thrilled by the continued strength of iPhone, Mac and the App Store, which drove our best March quarter results ever,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re seeing a higher rate of people switching to iPhone than we’ve experienced in previous cycles, and we’re off to an exciting start to the June quarter with the launch of Apple Watch.”

Apple sold 61.2 million iPhones in Q2, beating analyst estimates. Apple also revealed that the company sold 12.6 million iPads in Q2, but kept quite on sales numbers for the Apple Watch. 

“The tremendous customer demand for our products and services in the March quarter drove revenue growth of 27% and EPS growth of 40%,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “Cash flow from operations was also outstanding at $19.1 billion.”

Apple is providing the following guidance for its Q3 2015:

•     revenue between $46 billion and $48 billion
•     gross margin between 38.5% and 39.5%
•     operating expenses between $5.65 billion and $5.75 billion
•     other income/(expense) of $350 million
•     tax rate of 26.3%

Again China is the key to Apple’s success. For the first time Apple sold more iPhones in China than in the United States. According to Reuters, Apple CEO Tim Cooks said in the earnings conference call: “China’s expanding middle class is fueling iPhone sales there, which is the bulk of the company’s sales. The iPhone 6 was launched last autumn in China with a number of carriers.”

The Apple Stock rose 1.82% yesterday. In after hour trading it rose another 1.33% closing at $134.42, which is the highest the AAPL stock has traded so far. Apple also announced that its Board of Directors has authorized an increase of more than 50% to the Company’s program to return capital to shareholders. Under the expanded program, Apple plans to utilize a cumulative total of $200 billion of cash by the end of March 2017. The Board has also approved an increase of 11% to the Company’s quarterly dividend, and has declared a dividend of $.52 per share, payable on /4/14, 2015 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on /4/11, 2015.