Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares briefly jumped in extended trading on Tuesday before dropping $2.60 to $115.65 after the company reported fiscal results for the fourth quarter.
In its quarterly report, the iPhone maker said it earned $1.67 per share, one penny above the $1.66 per share analysts were expecting. Revenue fell 9.0% to $46.85 billion, below views for $46.98 billion. Gross margin was 38% compared to 39.9% a year earlier.
For the quarter ended Sept. 24, 2016 the company said it sold 45.5 million iPhone units, down 5% on a y/y basis but still beating expectations of 45 million in sales. While the numbers included only the first two weeks of iPhone sales, this was the first quarter to reflect sales of the new iPhone 7. Q4 iPhone sales by the way came in 17% higher from Q3′s level. Apple also said it sold 9.27 million units of iPad and 4.9 million Mac computers.
Services revenue was up 24%, hitting an all-time quarterly record of $6.3 billion, while the “Other Products” category, including Apple Watch, was $2.37 billion, a 22% decline from $3.04 billion a year earlier.
Overall though, it was a good showing for Apple, especially on the iPhone front.
“Our strong September quarter results cap a very successful fiscal 2016 for Apple,” Tim Cook said in a statement. “We’re thrilled with the customer response to iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch Series 2, as well as the incredible momentum of our Services business, where revenue grew 24 percent to set another all-time record.”
Apple also gave a stronger-than-expected outlook for the first quarter of fiscal-year 2017, issuing revenue projection of $76 – $78 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $75.33 billion.
As it stands now, Apple’s cash hoard currently prints at $237.6 billion, up $6.1 billion from the previous quarter. As CNBC’s Christine Wang notes, if Cupertino’s enormous cash pile was its own company, “it would be the seventh largest in the S&P 500 and the fourteenth largest public company in the world.”
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