AAPL Turns in Record Q4 Revenues of $64B, Beats Wall Street on Earnings and Revs [Update]

Apple on Wednesday turned in a record September quarter—the company’s fiscal 4th quarter—with revenues of US$64 billion. The company also reported earnings per share of $3.03, crushing Wall Street consensus estimates of $2.68 EPS. The company attributed some of the gains to wearables, services, and iPad. Consensus estimates were for revenues of $63.07 billion.

Shares of $AAPL ended the regular session down at $243.26, down $0.030 (-0.01%), on strong volume of 28.9 million shares trading hands. Apple announced earnings 30 minutes after the markets close.

The after-hours market sent $AAPL higher, where it was trading at $247.41, a gain of $4.15 (+1.71%) as of this writing.

“We concluded a groundbreaking fiscal 2019 with our highest Q4 revenue ever, fueled by accelerating growth from Services, Wearables and iPad,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “With customers and reviewers raving about the new generation of iPhones, today’s debut of new, noise-cancelling AirPods Pro, the hotly-anticipated arrival of Apple TV+ just two days away, and our best lineup of products and services ever, we’re very optimistic about what the holiday quarter has in store.”

“Our strong business performance drove record Q4 EPS of $3.03 and record Q4 operating cash flow of $19.9 billion,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We also returned over $21 billion to shareholders, including almost $18 billion in share repurchases and $3.5 billion in dividends and equivalents, as we continue on our path to reaching a net cash neutral position over time.”

Apple offered guidance of revenue between $85.5 billion and $89.5 billion for the December quarter, with gross margins between 37.5 percent and 38.5 percent . Other guidance included operating expenses between $9.6 billion and $9.8 billion, other income/(expense) of $200 million, and a tax rate of approximately 16.5 percent.