Apple today announced its earnings for its first fiscal quarter of 2013. Apple’s revenue amounted to $54.5 billion in Q1. With earnings of $13.81 per share. Apple posted $13.1 billion in profit. This means that Apple narrowly missed street estimates on the revenue numbers, but beat on profits.
Apple sold 47.8 million iPhones, a record number which is up 23% year over year, and 22.9 million iPads this quarter, up 33% year over year. Apple sold 4.1 million Macs during the quarter, bringing sales down 22% when compared to the same quarter a year ago. iPod sales were at 12.7 million, which is down 18% year over year.
“We’re thrilled with record revenue of over $54 billion and sales of over 75 million iOS devices in a single quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re very confident in our product pipeline as we continue to focus on innovation and making the best products in the world.”
“We’re pleased to have generated over $23 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “We established new all-time quarterly records for iPhone and iPad sales, significantly broadened our ecosystem, and generated Apple’s highest quarterly revenue ever.”
It’s important to remember that there was only 13 weeks of sales included in Q1 2013, as compared to 14 weeks in the year-ago quarter. This will make today’s numbers a tad more impressive than they look when compared y/y. Note, too, that the numbers beat Apple’s own guidance, which was $52B in revenue and earnings of $11.75. If you adjust growth numbers for a 13 week quarter, iPhone grew 37% and iPad grew 60%.
The worries going in to Q1 were primarily in the iPhone sales numbers, something that was mitigated by strong reporting of sales by Verizon, Sprint and AT&T in the US. There was also the matter of the iPad mini cannibalizing regular iPad sales, resulting in a lower relative margin for the cheaper device.
Apple is estimating revenue between $41B and $43B for Q2, 2013.
Comparing and estimating
Fortune estimates of Apple’s Q1 had placed overall revenue estimates from analysts at around $54.74 billion in revenue, with earnings of $13.45 per share. Estimates had placed iPhone sales at around 49.5 million and iPad sales at around 24 million. Independent estimates had placed those numbers somewhat higher.
In the first fiscal quarter of 2012, Apple’s revenue amounted to $46.33B, with earnings of $13.87 per share. The company’s net profit in Q1 was $13.06 billion. In the Q2 2012 earnings report, issued in April, Apple reported $39.2 billion revenue, $13.06 billion profit, $12.30 EPS, 35.1 million iPhones, 11.8 million iPads, 4.89 million Macs.
Apple’s revenue amounted to $35B in Q3. With earnings of $9.32 per share. The company’s net profit in Q3 was $8.8 billion. These numbers ‘missed’ industry estimates slightly but beat Apple’s own estimates. Apple sold 4 million Macs during that quarter, bringing sales up 2% when compared to the same quarter a year ago. iPod sales were at 6.8 million down 10%.
Apple’s revenue amounted to $36 billion in Q4. With earnings of $8.67 per share, Apple posted $8.2 billion in profit.
In Q4 of 2012, Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO said that it expected revenue of about $52 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $11.75 in Q1 2013. This means that today’s earnings easily beat internal estimates.
On October 17th, 2011 Apple announced that sales of the iPhone 4S had exceeded 4 million units over its first weekend. The iPhone 5 was said to exceed that, selling 5M units over its first weekend. This September, Apple said that 2M iPhone 5s had been ordered in 24 hours, doubling the pre-order record for the iPhone 4S.
Apple will be streaming its earnings call live at 2pm, we will bring you important news and analysis from the call shortly thereafter.
The stash
Apple now has a cash hoard, including cash, short term and long term investments, of some $137.1 billion after its newly instituted dividend payout.
The Charts
Note: Apple did not break out Mac desktop and laptop sales this year for the first time in a decade. That’s why the chart below is a tad wonky.
Image Credit: Feng Li/Getty Images
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.