Apple has released its second quarter financial report, with the company posting a revenue of $58 billion and a net profit of $13.6 billion, equivalent to $2.33 per diluted share, fueled by record sales in the quarter for the iPhone smartphones, Mac computers, and an all-time record performance by the App Store.
"We are thrilled by the continued strength of iPhone, Mac and the App Store, which drove our best March quarter results ever," said Apple CEO Tim Cook regarding the company's second quarter results. "We're seeing a higher rate of people switching to iPhone than we've experienced in previous cycles, and we're off to an exciting start to the June quarter with the launch of Apple Watch."
Apple's revenue increased by 27 percent and earnings per share grew by 40 percent on the back of the massive demand in the market for the company's products and services.
However, as significant as the company's profits are, it is Apple's cash pile that is turning heads. Apple now has a total of $194 billion in cash and investments, which is much more compared to all the other companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index.
The company in the S&P 500 with the second most cash and investments is Microsoft, with $107.4 billion, and the third ranked company is Google, with $67 billion in cash and investments. Combined, Microsoft and Google's cash pile will still be less than that held by Apple.
The cash pile of Apple is very significant to its investors, who are expecting higher dividends and buybacks of stocks. With Apple's recent announcement of plans to boost the company's capital return program, investors are not disappointed.
Apple announced that the company's board approved an increase of over 50 percent to the company's capital return program, which has the company planning to return an amount of $200 billion to stockholders through March 2017.
Part of the revised program is the increased authorization for repurchasing shares to $140 billion from the previous $90 billion. In addition, Apple's board also approved to increase the company's dividend per quarter by 11 percent to 52 cents per share, which is equivalent to an increase in dividends of $1.16 billion.
According to S&P Dow Jones Indices' Howard Silverblatt, the increased dividends will make Apple the biggest payer of dividends as it will release $12.1 billion per year. The previous company holding the top position was Exxon Mobil, which releases dividends equivalent to $11.6 billion annually.
Photo: Race Bannon | Flickr
