The Zhitong Finance App learned that after the US stock market closed on Thursday, Apple (AAPL.US) announced financial results for the second fiscal quarter. The company announced the largest share repurchase plan of 110 billion US dollars in history, and raised quarterly dividends for the 12th year in a row. Affected by this news, Apple's stock price rose 7.7% after the market. If this increase continues until the opening of the market on Friday, it will increase its market value by more than 200 billion US dollars.
The reason why Apple was able to implement such a large-scale buyback is because the company's free cash flow scale has been leading the market over the past 12 months. Prior to the announcement of the financial report, Apple's cash flow level was about 107 billion US dollars.
In the second fiscal quarter, Apple's total revenue was US$90.75 billion, down 4.3% from the same period last year. The market forecast was US$90 billion. The company's net profit was US$23.636 billion, down 2.2% year on year, but higher than market expectations of US$23.17 billion, compared to US$24.16 billion in the same period last year. Furthermore, Apple's gross margin increased to 46.6%, in line with market expectations.
Despite challenges to overall performance, Apple's service business performed well. Revenue increased 14.2% year over year to US$23.87 billion, reaching a record high for the fifth consecutive quarter. This business includes the App Store app store, Apple Music and Apple TV+ audio and video streaming services, iCloud storage, and Apple Pay.
In terms of hardware products, iPhone sales for the second fiscal quarter fell 10.5% year over year to US$45.96 billion, which is expected to be US$45.76 billion. This may reflect weak demand for the iPhone 15 series, which was released in September last year. Furthermore, Apple achieved positive growth in the Mac product line. In particular, the new MacBook Air with the M3 chip boosted sales growth, which rose 3.9% year over year to US$7.451 billion.
Sales of iPads and other hardware products such as wearables, home, and accessories are not as good as expected. iPad sales fell 16.7% year over year to US$5.56 billion, lower than market expectations. Apple has announced that it will release a new iPad on May 7, which is expected to boost sales of this product line.
In terms of geographical distribution, the performance of Greater China was remarkable. Although revenue fell 8.1% year over year to US$16.37 billion, this decline was far better than the double-digit percentage decline expected by the market. Apple CEO Cook expressed optimism about the performance of the Chinese market and emphasized that long-term performance is valued over short-term fluctuations.
The performance of the American and European markets showed some fluctuations. Revenue in the American region fell 1.4% year on year, while the European region increased slightly by 0.7%. Revenues in Japan and other Asia-Pacific regions have declined significantly.