Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)
Monday after the bell Apple has reported second quarter results, leading the shares to gain %1 in after-hours trading. Apple barely beat estimates which may have been set high after the stealer results of last quarter. The quarter brought in $2.33 per share earnings, beating the top estimate of $2.15 by 19 analysts. Sales beat the top estimate by $2billion recording $58 billion in revenues.
Not only beating earnings but Apple is increasing its dividend to .52 cents per share, leading to an increase of 11%, much higher than expected. This boost makes Apple the biggest dividend payer in the S&P 500. Dividends will be paid on May 14th. Besides the dividend there will also be an increase in the buyback of shares to $140 billion, a % 35 increases.
Apple sales of iPhone reached 61million phones in the second quarter just beating the 57 million estimates. With the increase in sales came greater margins of 40.7%, greater than the company’s forecast of 38.5%. The new iPhone 6 and 6 plus led to an average high selling price of $659.
In the conference call Tim Cook showed some concern over the iPad sales. In the second quarter Apple sold 12.6 million iPads, below the 15 million estimates. The fate of the iPad can also be shown in 1st quarter with sales down 18% from the year before. The decrease in sales may be correlated to the increase in screen size of the iPhone 6 and 6 plus. Rumors say a larger iPad screen size may come out to compensate for the size.
Apples shares are trading up nearly 20% from the star of the year ending the day at $132.65 (+2.37/1.82%).
