Strong iPhone sales drive record March quarter revenue and 15 percent EPS growth

CUPERTINO, USA: Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2014 second quarter ended March 29, 2014.

The company posted quarterly revenue of $45.6 billion and quarterly net profit of $10.2 billion, or $11.62 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $43.6 billion and net profit of $9.5 billion, or $10.09 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.3 percent compared to 37.5 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 66 percent of the quarter's revenue.

"We're very proud of our quarterly results, especially our strong iPhone sales and record revenue from services," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "We're eagerly looking forward to introducing more new products and services that only Apple could bring to market."

"We generated $13.5 billion in cash flow from operations and returned almost $21 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the March quarter," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "That brings cumulative payments under our capital return programme to $66 billion."

Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2014 third quarter:

- revenue between $36 billion and $38 billion

- gross margin between 37 percent and 38 percent

- operating expenses between $4.4 billion and $4.5 billion

- other income/(expense) of $200 million

- tax rate of 26.1 percent.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.