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Apple’s quarterly profit set new world record for any company, says Standard & Poor’s

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Apple didn’t just set a new record for the company when it beat every forecast in the Q1 results announced yesterday, it set a new world record for the most profitable quarter of any company in history, says credit ratings giant Standard & Poor’s. Its net profit of $18B far exceeded the previous record of $15.9B, set by oil company ExxonMobil back in 2012.

With such huge numbers difficult to grasp, there have been various attempts around the net to put the numbers into perspective.  TechCrunch expressed it as a profit of $8.3M per hour. Reddit user Cal00 noted that Apple made more from the iPhone alone that Google and Microsoft made from their entire product ranges–combined. Business Insider observed that the single-quarter iPhone sales were greater than Yahoo’s entire market capitalisation.

While revenue, profit and iPhone sales all exceeded even analyst expectations, the analysts were right about one key thing …

It had been predicted that high sales of the iPhone 6 Plus, together with more people opting for the middle storage tier after Apple doubled capacity to 64GB, would boost margins beyond the 37.5-38.5% forecast by Apple. This was indeed the case, notes the WSJ, averaging selling price rising year-on-year by $50 to $687, enabling Apple to hit a gross margin of 39.9%.

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CEO Tim Cook was also keen to point out that many of those buying the iPhone 6/Plus were new customers, per MacWorld.

I would point out that only a small fraction of the installed base has upgraded, so there’s a lot more people within the installed base, but I would also point out that we had the highest number of customers new to iPhone last quarter than in any prior launch. And also that the current iPhone lineup experienced the highest Android switcher rate in any of the last three launches in any of the three previous years. We didn’t look back to the other years, I don’t know about those.

The iPhone now accounts for 69% of total Apple revenue.

The record-breaking numbers also explain why, despite the stock buybacks and dividends paid out by Apple, its cash reserves continue to climb, now standing at $178B. As Business Insider commented, this would be more than enough to enable Apple to buy IBM, Ford, GM and Tesla with $41.3B in change.

Via BBC News

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Comments

  1. nsxrebel - 9 years ago

    WOW.

    Btw, where’s Herb at with his nonsense posts?? I kinda miss his posts, were always good for a chuckle.

    • drhalftone - 9 years ago

      The shear number of stories related to Apple success probably has his head spinning.

    • 89p13 - 9 years ago

      I was thinking the same thing while posting in another thread this morning. And now that Apple is in a position to overtake Shamesung in world wide sales, I was wondering if he’s trolling for someone else (Microsoft???).

      He did make me laugh – in his trolling kind of way! ;)

    • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

      He committed suicide because of Apple just steamrolling Scamsung and Android this quarter, and him having nothing even remotely intelligent to say in rebuttal.

      • scumbolt2014 - 9 years ago

        Like anything that d-bag troll ever said had any factual or intelligence to it at all…

  2. rob nienburg (@robogobo) - 9 years ago

    It’s funny the ambivalence I feel about these huge profits Apple continues to have quarter after quarter. On one hand it’s “way to go, keep kicking ass”, but on the other hand I feel like “ok, so let’s see that money translate to better quality control, more attention to better programming and more trickle up attention to pro software (as opposed to wrecking and killing their best apps)”. They have the money to hire the best talent in the world.

  3. Steffen Jobbs - 9 years ago

    Where’s all the jackass analysts and pundits telling everyone to sell Apple stock before earnings because the company’s share price had run up too far over the past year. What’s really sickening about their analysis is that they’re costing their clients quite a bit of money by telling them to dump Apple to buy Microsoft, Google and Amazon. Those analysts are either crooks trying to make money from their clients to get trade commissions or they’re just stupid because they choose to ignore Apple’s fundamentals. What’s worse is those brain-dead institutional fund managers who refuse to invest in Apple but prefer to buy Hewlett-Packard, Cisco and Google. Those funds are really losing out on Apple’s gains. Apple’s institutional ownership percentage is terrible for a company that makes money hand over fist and gives a decent dividend. What is the matter with those stupid fund managers? What are they thinking. How is Google or Amazon a better investment than Apple?

    You watch within the next week or so there are going to be all these Wall Street geniuses telling Apple shareholders to sell their Apple stock because the company has no future left and how there’s no one left to buy Apple products. These people are liars and crooks of the worst kind.

  4. bloodymerzkizzoid - 9 years ago

    BENDGATE = 74.5 million iPhone sold..
    Now Shamesung have a new plan!

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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