Apple beats Street with Q219 results

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2019 second quarter ended March 30, 2019. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $58 billion, a decline of 5 percent from the year-ago quarter, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.46, down 10 percent. International sales accounted for 61 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
“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, in a statement. “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, in a statement. “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.”
According to Refinitiv consensus estimates, here’s what Wall Street expected the following for Apple’s Q219:
• EPS: $2.36,
• Revenue: $57.37 billion
• Q2 iPhone revenue: $31.03 billion
• Q2 services revenue: $11.37 billion
• Projected Q3 revenue: $51.94 billion
Net sales by category:
• iPhone: $31.051 billion (vs. $37.559 billion YOY)
• Services: $11.450 billion (vs. $9,850 billion YOY)
• Mac: $5.513 billion (vs. $5.776 billion YOY)
• Wearables, Home and Accessories: $5.129 billion (vs. $3.944 billion YOY)
• iPad: $4.872 billion (vs. $4.008 billion YOY)
Reflecting the approved increase, Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.77 per share of the Company’s common stock, an increase of 5 percent. The dividend is payable on May 16, 2019 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 13, 2019.
The management team and the Board will continue to review each element of the capital return program regularly and plan to provide an update on the program on an annual basis.
Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2019 third quarter:
• revenue between $52.5 billion and $54.5 billion
• gross margin between 37 percent and 38 percent
• operating expenses between $8.7 billion and $8.8 billion
• other income/(expense) of $250 million
• tax rate of approximately 16.5 percent
Apple will provide live streaming of its Q2 2019 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PDT on April 30, 2019 at www.apple.com/investor/earnings-call/ which we will cover with live notes (see home page).
MacDailyNews Take: Beat!
Pretty weak dividend raise, below many of the projections we’ve seen, but good guidance, services beat, and, of course, revenue and EPS that exceeded consensus expectations.