Apple has posted revenue of $62.9 billion for its fiscal 2018 fourth quarter, an increase of 20 per cent from the year-ago quarter, concluding a record year with its best September quarter ever.

Quarterly earnings per diluted share reached $2.91, up 41 per cent. International sales accounted for 61 per cent of the quarter’s revenue.

Services revenue reached an all-time high of $10 billion. Excluding a one-time favourable adjustment of $640 million recognized in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, Services revenue grew from $7.9 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017 to $10 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018, an increase of 27 per cent.

“We’re thrilled to report another record-breaking quarter that caps a tremendous fiscal 2018, the year in which we shipped our 2 billionth iOS device, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the App Store and achieved the strongest revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

“Over the past two months, we’ve delivered huge advancements for our customers through new versions of iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and Mac as well as our four operating systems, and we enter the holiday season with our strongest line-up of products and services ever.”

“We concluded a record year with our best September quarter ever, growing double digits in every geographic segment. We set September quarter revenue records for iPhone and Wearables and all-time quarterly records for Services and Mac,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO.

“We generated $19.5 billion in operating cash flow and returned over $23 billion to shareholders in dividends and share repurchases in the September quarter, bringing total capital returned in fiscal 2018 to almost $90 billion.”

Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2019 first quarter:

•    revenue between $89 billion and $93 billion
•    gross margin between 38 per cent and 38.5 per cent
•    operating expenses between $8.7 billion and $8.8 billion
•    other income/(expense) of $300 million
•    tax rate of approximately 16.5 per cent before discrete items

Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.73 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on November 15 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 12. – TradeArabia News Service