Apple gets record numbers from quarterly report

Officially the richest in the world

When Apple released their earnings report from the last quarter of 2014 on Tuesday, most analysts knew that the company had a strong revenue period. When the numbers were released, everyone including consumers could not believe the information they were about to hear. It was officially reported that Apple had quarterly earnings of $74.6 billion with a per share earnings of $3.06. These numbers surpassed the average most analyst had which was about $67.7 billion at $2.60 per share of earnings. These mind blowing numbers were able to garner Apple a profit of $18 billion which set at an all time quarterly earnings record for any type of company in history and that it is including gas and energy companies.

The record breaking quarter for Apple was attributed to a total of 74.5 million total iPhone sales during the three month period that ended on December, 31, 2014. The iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus had strong sales but there were also strong consumer sales from the older models as well. These iPhone sales numbers were a 30 percent increase from the previous quarter which obviously can be explained by the Christmas holiday shopping season during the final quarter.

Apple is now the company that is the most cash rich company in the world. Apple CEO Tim Cook heads the record holder at $178 billion in cash holdings. The new report also showed a breakdown of the increase in sales by country and region. China seen a 70 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2014. They were followed by the Pacific region at 33 percent, the Americas at 23 percent, and then followed by Europe at 20 percent. Analysts predict that the strong sales numbers should continue on into the spring with the set release of the Apple Watch. Apple also announced on Tuesday that the Apple Watch will begin shipping starting in April.

Source: USA Today