Apple financial results Q4 2015: How much money did Apple make?

Apple posted quarterly revenue of $51.5 billion and quarterly net profit of $11.1 billion, which is $1.96 per diluted share. This compares to revenue of $49.6 billion and profit of £10.7 billion last quarter, and $42.123 billion in revenue in the year ago quarter.

This means revenues leapt by 22 per cent year-on-year, while profit was up 31 per cent.

The company has predicted that this quarter, it would see revenue of between $49 and $51 billion, with gross margin between 38.5 percent and 39.5 percent. Those estimates actually caused some concern among investors because they are reasonably low for the fourth quarter, which led to a decline in share price following last quarter’s call. Apple narrowly beat its estimates.

Apple financial results: fiscal year 2015

Of course, the fourth quarter results is also Apple’s chance to recap on the events of the year, and reveal the final profit and revenue figures for those past 12 months.

Speaking to analysts the conference call to announce Apple’s financial results for the fiscal fourth quarter, and the financial results for the fiscal year 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook celebrated: “A very strong finish to a record-breaking year”.

He reported that: “Revenue of 234 billion, an increase of 28 percent, and 58 billion dollars over 2014. To put that into some context, our growth in one year was greater than the full-year revenue of almost 90 percent of the companies in the Fortune 500.”

The company “generated over 53 billion dollars in net income, and grew earnings per share by 43 percent,” during the year.

Cook told analysts: “In the past 12 months around the world, we’ve sold over 300 million devices, including 231 million iPhones, 55 million iPads, and 21 million Macs, setting new unit records and increasing our global market share for both iPhone and Mac.”

He emphasized that Apple, “accomplished all of these things while intensifying our efforts to protect the environment, to promote equality and human rights, and to ensure the security and privacy we know our customers deserve”

Apple financial results Q4 2015: Guidance for next quarter

Apple provided the following guidance for its fiscal 2016 first quarter, which will run to the end of December.

  • Revenue between $75.5 billion and $77.5 billion
  • Gross margin between 39 percent and 40 percent
  • Operating expenses between $6.3 billion and $6.4 billion
  • Other income/(expense) of $400 million
  • Tax rate of 26.2 percent

During Apple’s Q&A with analysts that followed Apple CEO Tim Cook’s summary of the quarter, Morgan Stanley analyst Katie Huberty asked whether Apple is concerned that it looks like it will see “only low single digit revenue growth” in the next quarter. In response Cook referred to “currency growth rates” and suggested he was happy with the estimates.