Apple usually posts strong quarterly results, and Q4 has been no different for the Cupertino-based company. It does, however, continue a troubling trend of increased revenue, but lowered profits.
For its Q4 2013 results, Apple announced that it pulled in revenue of $37.5 billion and quarterly net profit of $7.5 billion. This is an increase in revenue compared to Q4 2012 revenue ($36 billion), but a loss in quarterly net profit ($8.2 billion).
As far as hardware sales go, it was another record breaking quarter for the iPhone as Apple sold 33.8 million of its flagship mobile devices to consumers in the last quarter. That number got a major boost thanks to the release of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C which had the best opening weekend for iPhone sales on record. It also sold 14.1 million iPads and 4.6 million Macs in Q4 2013. iPad sales were up by about 100,000 over last year, whereas Mac sales were down by about 300,000 compared to last year.
“We’re pleased to report a strong finish to an amazing year with record fourth quarter revenue, including sales of almost 34 million iPhones,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re excited to go into the holidays with our new iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s, iOS 7, the new iPad mini with Retina Display and the incredibly thin and light iPad Air, new MacBook Pros, the radical new Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks and the next generation iWork and iLife apps for OS X and iOS.”
Apple also announced that it will be paying out a cash dividend of $3.05 per share of the company’s common stock. It will be payable on November 14.
“We generated $9.9 billion in cash flow from operations and returned an additional $7.8 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the September quarter, bringing cumulative payments under our capital return program to $36 billion,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO.
For Q1 2014, Apple predicts that it will be bring in revenue between $55 billion and $58 billion.
As expected, Apple shares have fallen almost 12 points in after hours trading on news of declining profits.
[Image: Wikimedia Commons]
