Apple Q1 2012 Results Obliterate Expectations

Apple has posted impressive quarterly earnings for the 14-week period ending on December 31, 2011.

According to a press release, the company reported a quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion, as well as a quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share, the company's best quarterly results yet.

"These results compare to revenue of $26.74 billion and net quarterly profit of $6 billion, or $6.43 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter," per the release.

The Verge reports on the company's record-shattering iPhone, iPad and Mac sales, writing, "Apple sold an astonishing 37.04 million iPhones, 15.43 million iPads and 5.3 million Macs during the quarter, which represent increases of 128 percent, 111 percent, and 26 percent from last year. That's 2m more phones sold than Samsung shipped last quarter, which is astonishing."

In a statement accompanying the news, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs. [...] Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.”

The AP reports,

The result may make Apple the world's largest maker of smartphones. Samsung Electronics, which held that position for most of last year, has said it expects to report shipping about 35 million smartphones in the October to December quarter.

October saw the launch of the iPhone 4S, and the addition of Sprint Nextel Corp. as an iPhone carrier in the U.S.

Apple said net income in the fiscal first quarter was $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per share. That was up 118 percent from $6 billion, or $6.43 per share, a year ago.

Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings of $10.04 per share for the latest quarter, Apple's fiscal first.

Revenue was $46.33 billion, up 73 percent from a year ago. Analysts were expecting $38.9 billion.

During the company's earnings call, Apple SVP and CFO Peter Oppenheimer announced that Apple now has $97.6 billion in cash on hand. According to TechCrunch's live blog of the call, Oppenheimer didn't announce Apple's plans, but he said the company wouldn't be “letting it burn a hole in [their] pocket”.

After Apple's relatively disappointing previous quarter, the company's most recent earnings are nothing short of stunning.

"It sets up Apple well for the rest of the year," Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley told Reuters. "They are still ramping up the new geographies like the iPhone 4 in China, which they just started selling in January and we'll see in March results."

Check out the slideshow (below) to see how Twitter reacted to Apple's amazing results.

Comments

[Andy49]

09:59 PM on 01/26/2012

How many of their workers were injured or suffered from over work to accomplish this. Apple is the new wonder but it does it on the backs of thousands of abused workers.

[Reality always bites]

02:19 PM on 01/26/2012

I can never understand why 'Apple' have not branched out into cider production. They could make even bigger profits then!

[judy101101]

02:09 PM on 01/26/2012

the cost of doing business is killing human life - how many people are killer for every apple product? I feel sick to my stomach using any apple product and I can't say I'm a fan of anyone who would increase the manufacturing of these"black" products. apple proiducts are made by slaves yet Oprah has no problem filming how she DEMANDED she get shipped enough to be on her favourite things show causing a higher volume of slavery, where people actually die making them. Is Oprah for or against slavery? What did she teach her first graduating students?

[Hiddenfangs]

10:00 PM on 01/26/2012

What kind of computer are you using? Do you think it was made in the US?

[judy101101]

10:36 AM on 01/27/2012

at this level of my awareness MOST of our products are made through slavery - only the CEO's and wall street investors earn profits off the labour of others. Why do you think we have third world countries? Do you think it just happens or could it be some industrial thinkers CAUSE it to be? Odd how the "good guys" of any war all seem to come out billionairs after taking over their economic systems. I fully understand the mind of a homeless bumb - I do not want to participate in this system if it means it causes death for another just so I could have more of Oprah's favorite STUFF.

[whitcombc]

11:41 AM on 01/26/2012

Watch now as the headlines in NYC and the NYT all lament the horrors of the "Apple Factory" in China. God how the PC, getting too old for this, press loves to bash Apple. Apple does not have a factory in China. Microsoft does not have a Factory in China. A Chinese Factory assembling pieces for Sanyo, Samsung, Sony, Apple, HP and lord know who else is a horrible place to work. The 300 workers threatening suicide recently were makers of the X-Box. SO lets get the story straight - A Chinese Business treats its workers like crap. American companies and Japanese and even Korean Companies should do more to level the playing field or else bring the manufacturing home to the US. If the Congress would make it possible then we could have iPads and x-Boxes which cost only about $50 bucks more than they do. But the CONGRESS and the Lobbyists are the reason for the crazy tax situation, not Apple.

[JORGE BARREIRO]

11:20 AM on 01/26/2012

Why don't you look at the millions of importers of worthless items from China instead? Those items that anybody could live without it but drain the USA coffins out of precious dollars to import them and could well be manufactured in the USA. Why try to be what we're not. The USA is no longer a manufacturing Country, or at least hi-tech manufacturers. So, people have to think before they talk nonsense. Why don't refuse to buy all the plastic junk that comes to the USA from Orient? These imports are far more costly than Hi-Tech Apple products and don't even do 1% of the good that Apple does. Thanks to Apple, we're on top of the technology in the World.

[JORGE BARREIRO]

11:06 AM on 01/26/2012

APPLE's case is not greed but excelence. If they would manufacture their products in the USA, with the Unions and the modern workers pholosophy, it probably wouldn't meet the date lines or quality standards. Just look at a USA worker and compare it with an Oriental one and see the differences. American workers now, are far different from the ones at the beginning of the century or the ones that built the industrial revolution. Today, we have excellent scientists, artists, sports people, fashion designers, software designers and so on but manufacturing workers are good ones in certain nitches. The rest, I don't know, but I doubt it, they could meet the demands.

[pmc617]

10:54 AM on 01/26/2012

The job creators are holding trillions of dollars on the sidelines waiting for some "certainty".

[Arn Arn]

10:50 AM on 01/26/2012

Thanks China, you've made Apple a hit!

[StopTeaGOP]

05:24 AM on 01/26/2012

If apple created more jobs in the US, it still would have made huge profits, but greed supersedes job creation. Gov. Daniels was attempting to counteract Obama's example of Warren Buffett by invoking Steve Jobs without doing his homework thoroughly. Jobs name does not imply job creation in this country. Jobs outsourced American jobs, but damps the goods produced in China here in the US. The guy didn't take a penny to his grave; he was a typical vulture capitalist. Conclusion - Daniels is ignorant!

[ChicagoBob]

01:22 AM on 01/26/2012

A lot of Chinese families live in poverty and work in deplorable conditions for these results. Some even die for them.

Be ashamed, apple. Be very ashamed.

[WSAY]

09:19 AM on 01/26/2012

Because it is all Apple's fault.

[wizedollars]

01:16 PM on 01/26/2012

It is, they engage in slave labor praactices.

[Arn Arn]

10:53 AM on 01/26/2012

Be ashamed Apple? It's more like be ashamed America. We support the deplorable work conditions every time we buy an iPod. We commit a double-whammy when we buy our iPods from Walmart. Sadly people don't care as long as they get their pretty little toys on time.

[Orlando R Reyes Sr]

08:59 PM on 01/25/2012

Off to the races...instead of gamblers anonymous again. We need to patronize companies that create, built and assemble products only here in the US of A. Local banking, patronage, farming etc, etc. Put the power back into the hands of the people not Corporations etc, etc. This is only a projected hype. No Company is to big to fail or do you still believe in pipe dreams. Exploiting slave labor overseas has already come back to haunt us. Stay alert, educate yourself. Live and love within your means!...?

[kinogod]

06:41 PM on 01/25/2012

A sweet moment long overdue is about to take place in the next 12-18 months when apple will overtake google in stock price.

[Richard Bell]

10:12 PM on 01/25/2012

Stock price means nothing. Market cap is what matters. By this time next year, Apple will have enough cash-on-hand to buy Google out right...

[J T K]

12:03 AM on 01/26/2012

I'm sure the Sherman Anti-Trust Act would prevent it but that's an interesting notion. Would their new mash-up motto be don't think evilly?

[SETexasLib]

05:06 PM on 01/25/2012

If the government were to pass regulations that prevented a company from bringing their products into the country if they were not produced according to certain standards, I believe Apple would have a change of heart overnight.

Require them to ensure that Child labor laws equivalent to ours are observed by their manufacturers overseas. Require them to ensure that safety regulations were in place to protect the workers. Require them to ensure that wages met certain minimums and that working conditions met certain minimums.

Apple would still be a very profitable company, but they would comply because they would not give up the lucrative American market.

[johnmarlin]

05:25 PM on 01/25/2012

Goodie! Then we could create another useless bureaucracy (think TSA for one) with God knows how many csars to tell other countries how to live and run their businesses.

[OverseasVet]

07:53 PM on 01/25/2012

Yes it is so much better to allow them their child labor and expect the American Worker to to compete for $10/day wages.

[wizedollars]

01:19 PM on 01/26/2012

False euivalency bro, but I guess you'd rather have kids working around toxic substances, as long as they don't look like yours. I guess that's the Tea Bagger's definintion of the Christian way, which is to look the other way on stuff like that

[J T K]

12:07 AM on 01/26/2012

Depends on the goal of the regulations, if the regulations were to protect workers in other countries then A) that would be an encroachment on those countries' sovereignty because it's really none of our business on a policy level, and B) the wage requirements would then not be in comparison to ours but in comparison to their cost of living, which is still much lower than ours. If you're comparing their wage policies to ours then that's just ridiculous because our wages would be considered ridiculously high for any work over there because even though our wages don't follow inflation or cost of living (minimum wage probably should be pegged to those two marks) they still have that somewhat built in, making ours a lot higher.

[SETexasLib]

06:10 AM on 01/26/2012

Well argued nonsense. We have a right to protect our society from economic destruction. This is just a matter of leveling the playing field so that our workers can survive. China juggles its currency to produce hugh inequities in trade balance. Every country outside our borders takes actions that tend to give them advantage over their competitors.

If the countries we compete with can place restrictions on imports from our country, then I think that gives us the right to do the same thing.

We are also a sovereign nation with a right to place to pass laws that apply to companies that are incorporated under our law. Remember please that these corporations expect us young men and women in the military to go to battle to protect their investment should that nation that they have sold us out to decides to take their stuff.

No company incorporated under our law and under our protection should have the right to violate both our law and our moral standing simply by moving across the border. If they do not want to be an American company, there is a simple solution to that. Let them incorporate in China and be subject to China's law.

[johnmarlin]

05:05 PM on 01/25/2012

The reason that electronics (computers, TVs, phones, music systems, etc.) continually improve to the point that every year or so replacement products come out that are twice as fast with twice the capacity in half the envelope at half the price is because competition has been allowed to work. The fit survive. When competition is allowed to work the consumer wins. The government hasn't figured out a way to screw the electronics industry up.....yet.

[SETexasLib]

05:23 PM on 01/25/2012

If this is your idea of a good quality of life maybe it is time for a responsible government to find a way to screw it up:))

[johnmarlin]

05:33 PM on 01/25/2012

If the automobile industry had improved at the same rate the electronics industry has we'd be buying luxury models getting 100 mpg for $500.

[johnmarlin]

05:39 PM on 01/25/2012

Responsible government? Only congress can make laws. Who has controlled congress the overwhelming majority of the time the past 50 or more years.

[Veluriel]

05:48 PM on 01/25/2012

By "competition" you mean the willingness of the Chinese government to control/inflate/deflate their currency as it fits them, as well as ignore the plight of workers in horrible situations, right?

Did you read the NYT article where they say that Apple called up the factories in China in the middle of the night to make a change to their new iProduct, and those workers were woken up in their company barracks with tea and a biscuit before being put to work 12-hr shifts for little to no pay?

I'm sorry, but that's not competition. That's legalized exploitation. And the fact that all of our businesses are doing it is disgusting. Apple is no better than anyone else, and they seem to benefit heartily from this exploitation.

[johnmarlin]

06:26 PM on 01/25/2012

My comment has nothing to do with what the Chinese government does or doesn't do; or ours either for that matter.. The competition is in development of the technology. Without the technology the labor issue is irrelevant.

[tedr53]

04:31 PM on 01/25/2012

I refuse to buy Apple products.
The fact is they use slave labour, or near. No one who has a shred of decency should support a company, by buying it's products, no matter how big the 'cool' quotient is.
Blackberrys are made in North America by us for us and they'll do the trick until Apple changes its ways............... T.R., Montreal.

[Ed Baker]

04:42 PM on 01/25/2012

Why did mine say "made in China" and my partners said "made in Hungary"

[Isapisa]

05:43 PM on 01/25/2012

maybe that is the reason why RIM (blackberry company) has lost 70% of market capitalization.

[Veluriel]

05:51 PM on 01/25/2012

I think that has less to do with where Blackberrys are made, and more to do with RIM's lack of vision and stagnation. They had the market with all the smartphones just a few years ago, and they sat back, thinking they were in control. They let opportunity slip past due to complacency.

That has nothing to do with the quality of products made in North America.