Apple beats Street with Q420 revenue of $64.7 billion

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2020 fourth quarter ended September 26, 2020. The company posted record September quarter revenue of $64.7 billion and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $0.73. International sales accounted for 59 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

“Apple capped off a fiscal year defined by innovation in the face of adversity with a September quarter record, led by all-time records for Mac and Services,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in a statement. “Despite the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, Apple is in the midst of our most prolific product introduction period ever, and the early response to all our new products, led by our first 5G-enabled iPhone lineup, has been tremendously positive. From remote learning to the home office, Apple products have been a window to the world for users as the pandemic continues, and our teams have met the needs of this moment with creativity, passion, and the kinds of big ideas that only Apple can deliver.”

“Our outstanding September quarter performance concludes a remarkable fiscal year, where we established new all-time records for revenue, earnings per share, and free cash flow, in spite of an extremely volatile and challenging macro environment,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO, in a statement. “Our sales results and the unmatched loyalty of our customers drove our active installed base of devices to an all-time high in all of our major product categories. We also returned nearly $22 billion to shareholders during the quarter, as we maintain our target of reaching a net cash neutral position over time.”

Net sales by category:
• iPhone revenue: $26.444 billion
• Services revenue: $14.549 billion
• Mac revenue: $9.032 billion
• Wearables, Home and Accessories revenue: $7.876 billion
• iPad revenue: $6.797 billion

Prior to earnings, here’s what Wall Street expected, according to Refinitiv consensus estimates:

• EPS: $0.70
• Revenue: $63.7 billion
• iPhone revenue: $27.93 billion
• Services revenue: $14.08 billion
• Mac revenue: $7.93 billion
• Wearables, Home and Accessories revenue: $7.40 billion
• iPad revenue: $6.12 billion
• Gross margin: 38.1%

Apple’s Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.205 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on November 12, 2020 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 9, 2020.

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q4 2020 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PT on October 29, 2020 at apple.com/investor/earnings-call/. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.

MacDailyNews Take: Remember, the iPhone 12 family was delayed due to COVID-19 this year and those sales are coming in the next earnings report, not this report. This is merely the preamble to a multi-year iPhone super cycle yet to come.