Apple released the earnings results from its fourth fiscal quarter after closing bell tonight, posting earnings of $1.96 per share and revenue of $51.5 billion in revenue. Analysts had been expecting earnings of $1.88 per share and revenue of $51.12 billion. In last year’s fourth fiscal quarter, Apple posted earnings of $1.42 per share and $42.12 billion in revenue, outperforming consensus estimates on both metrics.
Apple posts strong results
Apple’s Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) gross margin rose to 39.9% from 38% last year.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) management had guided for revenue of between $49 billion and $51 billion and a gross margin of between 38.5% and 39.5%. The company sold 48 million iPhones and made revenue of $32.21 billion on the product. Analyst estimates for iPhone sales ranged fairly widely from 47 million up to 51 million, with the consensus at around 48.2 million.
The company sold 5.71 million Macs for $6.88 billion in revenue and 9.88 million iPads for $4.28 billion in revenue. Services revenue was $5.09 billion. Analysts were expecting around 5.5 million Macs, about 10 million iPads and 4 million Apple Watches to be sold during the quarter.
Of course we have no way of knowing how many Apple Watches were sold because once again, the company has chosen not to break sales of the device out from the other products lumped into the “Other” category. The company said “Other” revenue amounted to $3.05 billion. The category includes the Apple Watch, the Apple TV set-top box, and the Beats products.
Apple guides for the December quarter
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) management also provided an outlook for the first quarter of fiscal 2016. They expect sales to be between $75.5 billion and $77.5 billion and the gross margin to be between 39% and 40%. Consensus estimates suggest $77 billion in revenue, earnings per share of $3.21, and a gross margin of approximately 39.7%. Wall Street expects Apple to sell about 76 million iPhones during the December quarter, although some estimates range as high as 79 million.
As of this writing, shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) were up 2.92% at $117.89 per share.
