Apple’s profitability slips 18% in quarter to end-March

Apple reported its second-fiscal quarter financial results to end-March, and announced that revenues reached US$43.6 billion compared to US$39.2 billion a year ago.

However, net profit fell to US$9.5 billion compared to US$11.6 billion a year earlier.

Gross margin was 37.5 per cent compared to 47.4 per cent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 66 per cent of the quarter’s revenue.

The company sold 37.4 million iPhones in the quarter, compared to 35.1 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 19.5 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 11.8 million in the year-ago quarter, and just under four million Macs, compared to four million in the year-ago quarter.

Apple also announced a significant increase to its programme to return capital to shareholders. The company expects to utilise a total of US$100 billion of cash under the expanded program by the end of calendar 2015. This represents a US$55 billion increase to the program announced last year and translates to an average rate of US$30 billion per year from the time of the first dividend payment in August 2012 through December 2015.