Apple has had its most profitable quarter ever, posting a revenue of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion for its fiscal 2009 fourth quarter ended September 26.
These results compare to revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Gross margin was 36.6 per cent, up from 34.7 per cent in the year-ago quarter and international sales accounted for 46 per cent of the quarter’s revenue.
Apple’s revenue boosters were the Mac computer and the iPhone. More than 3.05 million Mac computers were sold during the quarter, a 17 per cent increase over last year. The company sold 7.4 million iPhones in the quarter, a seven per cent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. However, iPod sales were down with 10.2 million sold, an eight per cent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.
“We are thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.
“We’ve got a very strong line-up for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.”
Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO was very happy with the company’s September quarter and fiscal 2009 results.
“For the full year, we grew revenue by 12 per cent and net income by 18 per cent in extraordinarily challenging times,” he said.
“Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue in the range of about $11.3 billion to $11.6 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $1.70 to $1.78.”