The Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock price had a very decent day of trading over on the US markets last night (our time). Apple ended up closing the normal trading day at US$152.57 a share, up a healthy 2.5% for the day. That puts Apple's stock price within a few dollars of its all-time high of US$157.26 a share. But Apple's after-hours trading this morning told a rather different tale. Apple ended up closing at a far lower US$147.19 in after-hours trading, down a nasty 3.53%.
That might have something to do with the quarterly earnings report Apple released after market close.
So how did Apple do?
Well, the company posted revenues for the 3 months ending 25 September (Apple runs on a strange calendar) of US$83.4 billion, up 29% from the US$64.7 billion from the same quarter last year.
Operating income came in at US$20.55 billion, also up substantially from the US$12.67 billion posted in last year's quarter. That translates into US$1.25 in basic earnings per share (EPS), up from 74 cents in EPS last year.
Apple reports growth across the board
In terms of revenues, iPhone once again proved its dominance in Apple's product stable. US$38.87 billion in revenue came from iPhone sales over the quarter, up 47% from the US$26.44 billion from 2020's September quarter.
Services revenue rose 25.6% from US$14.55 billion last year to US$18.28 billion in this quarter. iPad revenue was up 21.3% to US$8.25 billion, while Wearables, Home and Accessories rose 11.55% to US$8.79 billion. Mac sales were comparatively flat, rising 1.6% to US$9.18 billion.
Turning to dividends, and Apple declared a cash dividend of 22 cents per share, to be paid on 11 November, the same payout investors enjoyed over the previous quarter.
Apple CFO Luca Maestri had this to say on these results:
Our record September quarter results capped off a remarkable fiscal year of strong double-digit growth, during which we set new revenue records in all of our geographic segments and product categories in spite of continued uncertainty in the macro environment…
The combination of our record sales performance, unmatched customer loyalty, and strength of our ecosystem drove our active installed base of devices to a new all-time high.
Even though Apple shares have fallen in after-hours trading, they have proven especially lucrative to own over the past few years. Apple is now up 17.9% year to date in 2021 so far, and up 32.3% over the past 12 months. The company has also given investors an eye-watering return of 461% over the past 5 years.
At Apple's last closing stock price, this tech giant has a market capitalisation of US$2.52 trillion, with a dividend yield of 0.55%.
