- Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) drops some more metrics during its earnings call, and the CFO has an interview with the Financial Times.
- Call stats:
- Q1 was one week shorter than 1Q17 (noted more than once) and average revenue per week was up 21%.
- Active install base reached 1.3B in January (a new high).
- Paid subscriptions among services passed 240M (largest quarterly growth ever, up 30M in 90 days).
- Apple Watch unit sales up 50% for the quarter with Watch 3 volume twice that of Series 2 last year.
- Wearables (AirPods, Watch, Beats) second largest contributor to revenue growth.
- March quarter downside guidance (and news reports) hint at slow revenue and iPhone shipments, but Apple expects 13% to 17% unit growth of higher-priced iPhones with revenue $7B to $9B higher on the year. Expects sell-through to accelerate during March quarter (compared to December).
- CFO interview:
- Apple CFO Luca Maestro says the company plans to reduce its net cash balance to “approximately zero” thanks to the U.S. tax reform, according to an interview with FT.
- Apple ended the year with $163B in cash net of debt and last month announced plans to pay the government $38B on its overseas cash pile.
- Maestri says the details will come in April, which is when the company typically discusses capital allocation plans.
- ”Our target over time is to take that $163 down to approximately zero. All that cash will be deployed for capital allocation,” says Maestri. He says this can include M&A, dividends, and buybacks.
- Apple shares are up 3.5% aftermarket.
- Previously: Apple beats by $0.04, beats on revenue (Feb. 1)
- Previously: Apple declares $0.63 dividend (Feb. 1)
- Previously: Apple -1% on Q1 unit sales drop, downside guidance (Feb. 1)
- Now read: Apple Earnings Were Just Fine
Original article