Apple today announced financial results for the second fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) of 2016. These results provided revenue data of 50,6 one billion dollars with a net quarterly profit of 10.5 billion, or what is the same, at 1.90 dollars per diluted share. If we put it in perspective, Apple has suffered a clear slowdown, since in the same quarter of 2015, it obtained a revenue of 58 billion dollars with a net profit of 13.6 billion, or 2,33 dollars per diluted share.
This has been the first "downturn" for Apple since 2003, however it does not mean that it was bad but that the gross profit margin stands at 39,4% compared to 40,8% the previous year.
In addition to an increase in dividend payments, Apple says it will raise the share buyback limit to $ 50 billion again and the company says it expects spend more than 250 million in cash under its end-of-March 2018 equity return program.
Regarding sales, the company achieved put into circulation 51,1 million iPhoness during the quarter, down from 61,2 million the previous year, while Mac sales were 4,03 million units, compared to 4,56 million units in the quarter of the previous year. IPad sales have also seen declines, dropping from 12,6 million in the second quarter of 2015 to 10,2 million today.
According to Tim Cook, Apple CEO:
Our team is doing things well even though negative macroeconomic data has been obtained. We are very pleased with the strong overall growth in service revenue, and above all thanks to the incredible strength of the Apple ecosystem and our growing base of one billion activated devices.
I think it is a warning bell due to its disconnection with the needs of consumers. The iPhone SE would be an awakening if they follow that same trend in all their products (good design, good specifications). It requires updating the Macbook Air line, (if the Macbook is definitely not going to have ports), and in general the entire line of computers that are without updating Mac mini, iMac, Macbook pro. If the same thing happens to them as to Nokia or Blackberry, it is not for lack of products to pull from.