Apple has huge fourth quarter, reports profit up 13% to $8.5 billion
Apple Inc. had a standout fourth quarter, thanks largely to strong iPhone sales.
The Cupertino, Calif., company reported that profit rose 13.3% to $8.5 billion, or $1.42 a share, for the three months that ended Sept. 27. Revenue was up 12.3% to $42.1 billion.
Analysts polled by Yahoo Finance had expected earnings of $1.31 a share on revenue of $39.85 billion.
Chief Executive Tim Cook said in a statement that Apple’s fiscal 2014 was “one for the record books.”
The company sold 39.3 million iPhones during the quarter, a 16% year-over-year increase. Mac sales also did well, rising 21% to 5.5 million computers sold – that’s particularly impressive given the softness in the personal computer category as a whole.
But other categories struggled. For the third quarter in a row, sales of iPads fell. Apple reported that it sold 12.3 million iPads during the quarter, down 13% from the same quarter a year earlier. And iPod sales dropped 24%, to 2.6 million units sold.
Apple released its earnings after the markets closed. During regular trading, its shares rose $2.09, or 2.1%, to $99.76. Shortly after the company reported earnings, its shares rose more than 1% in after-hours trading.
Apple released its earnings the same day that it launched Apple Pay, its new mobile payment system.
Major retailers including McDonald’s, Macy’s, Walgreens, Office Depot, Nike, Bloomingdale’s and Petco are accepting Apple Pay, which is being supported by Visa, MasterCard and American Express.
The rollout Monday appeared generally smooth, although some users reported being unable to use the service at some partner retailers who weren’t yet set up with Apple Pay machines, or because store clerks were unfamiliar with the new feature.
By and large, however, users said getting Apple Pay up and running was a cinch.
“The whole set-up and use experience so far is excellent,” J.P. Morgan analyst Rod Hall said in a note to investors. “Not much impact to Apple’s earnings on our calculations but certainly yet another reason for people to remain locked into the platform.”
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