Apple Inc. reported its best-ever financial quarter with 30% YoY increase in its revenue to $74.6 billion and 37% increase in its net profits to $18 billion for the Q1 of 2015. The company attributes this stellar performance to massive sales of its newly launched large screen iPhones, App Store apps and Mac computers.
International sales of Apple devices contributed 65% of the first quarter revenue. Revenue for iPhones alone generated $51.2 billion on sales of 74.5 million devices around the world. Both sales and revenue increased significantly from 51 million iPhones and $32.5 billion in revenue for the same prior year quarter.
Greater China, which includes China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, contributed $16.1 billion in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Q1 revenue, representing 22% of the overall revenues. The company has reported $9.5 billion in revenue during the same prior year quarter.
China contributed significantly to the company’s Q1 performance and analysts are expecting the momentum to continue in the current quarter with gift-buying ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday. Experts opined that Apple hasn’t reached its maximum level in China and the current quarter could be even bigger than the reported quarter for the company.
Luca Maestri, Apple Inc. CFO, said that the company’s earnings per share increased 48% YoY during the first quarter. The company also posted all-time high operating cash flow of $33.7 billion. The company also spent approximately $8 billion on its capital return program, totaling $57 billion in just the last 12 months.
Based on its Q1 earnings performance, Apple forecasted Q2 of fiscal 2015 to knock revenues of $52 billion to $55 billion, along with a gross margin of 38.5% to 39.5%. The forecast seems to be in line with Apple’s increasing popularity in the domestic and overseas markets. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners recently noted that Apple’s large screen iPhones helped the company capture about 50% of smartphone sales in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of calendar 2014.
