This afternoon Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2024 fourth quarter ended September 28, 2024. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $94.9 billion, up 6 percent year over year, and quarterly diluted earnings per share of $0.97. Diluted earnings per share was $1.64,1 up 12 percent year over year when excluding the one-time charge recognized during the fourth quarter of 2024 related to the impact of the reversal of the European General Court’s State Aid decision.

“Today Apple is reporting a new September quarter revenue record of $94.9 billion, up 6 percent from a year ago,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “During the quarter, we were excited to announce our best products yet, with the all-new iPhone 16 lineup, Apple Watch Series 10, AirPods 4, and remarkable features for hearing health and sleep apnea detection. And this week, we released our first set of features for Apple Intelligence, which sets a new standard for privacy in AI and supercharges our lineup heading into the holiday season.”

“Our record business performance during the September quarter drove nearly $27 billion in operating cash flow, allowing us to return over $29 billion to our shareholders,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We are very pleased that our active installed base of devices reached a new all-time high across all products and all geographic segments, thanks to our high levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty.”

Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.25 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on November 14, 2024 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 11, 2024.

Condensed Consolidated Statements

(Click on the 3 Financials to Enlarge)

CNBC added that Apple’s fiscal fourth-quarter results beat Wall Street expectations for revenue and earnings per share but net income slumped after the company paid a one-time charge as part of a tax decision in Europe.

Apple shares were down 0.85% in extended trading on Thursday.  

Here’s how the iPhone maker did versus LSEG consensus estimates for the quarter ending Sept. 28:  

• EPS: $1.64, adjusted, versus $1.60 estimated 
• Revenue: $94.93 billion vs. $94.58 billion estimated 
• iPhone revenue: $46.22 billion vs. $45.47 billion estimated 
• Mac revenue: $7.74 billion vs. $7.82 billion estimated 
• iPad revenue: $6.95 billion vs. $7.09 billion estimated 
• Other Products revenue: $9.04 billion vs. $9.21 billion estimated 
• Services revenue: $24.97 billion vs. $25.28 billion estimated 
• Gross margin: 46.2% vs. 46.0% estimated 

Overall iPhone revenue grew 6% in the first sign of how the iPhone 16 is fairing in the market. Apple’s newest devices came out on Sept. 20, giving Apple about a week of new product sales in the quarter. It’s still Apple’s most important product, accounting for nearly 49% of the company’s overall sales.  

Sales of the iPhone 15 were “stronger than 14 in the year-ago quarter, and 16 was stronger than 15,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC’s Steve Kovach.  

Apple’s iPad business had the strongest growth of any of Apple’s hardware lines with an 8% increase in sales to $6.95 billion. Part of the sales were from pent-up demand. Apple released new iPad Pro and Air models in May after going through all of 2023 without releasing new iPads. 

Apple’s Mac business rose 2% on an annual basis to report $7.74 billion in revenue during the quarter, which includes back-to-school laptop sales. Cook told CNBC that the growth was driven by sales of the company’s MacBook Air, which was updated with new chips in the spring.

Apple’s services business -- which includes online subscriptions such as iCloud, Google search revenue, and AppleCare warranties for Apple hardware -- remains a juggernaut and grew 12% on an annual basis to nearly $25 billion in sales. However, Apple’s services revenue came in under LSEG consensus expectations. For more, read the full CNBC report.