The net profit of Apple Inc (O: AAPL), in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015 ended September 26, increased by 31% to $ 11.1 billion, compared with $ 8.5 billion in the same period a year earlier. Earnings per share jumped 38% on an active program of buyback: from $ 1.42 to $ 1.96, the company said.
Quarterly Apple's revenue increased by 22%: from $ 42.12 billion to $ 51.5 billion. The share of international sales thus accounted for 62% of revenue, which is a couple of percentage points lower than in recent quarters.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, expected the Apple's profit to be $ 10.8 billion, or $ 1.88 per share, on revenue of $ 51 billion. The upper limit of the company's own forecast for revenue was also $ 51 billion.
Apple's profit was higher than Wall Street expectations for the ninth consecutive quarter due to demand for the iPhone in China, while sales of the iPhone and Mac computers jumped to record levels.
The gross margin rose 1.9 percentage points to 39.9%.
IPhone sales, which account for the most significant part of the Apple revenue, consisted in the last quarter of 48.04 million units, which is 22.3% more than in July-September of 2014; also in China, the iPhone soared 99%. For the sixth consecutive quarter, the rise in total exceeds 10%, but this time the sales were worse than Wall Street expectations: analysts on average had forecasted them at 48 720 000. The new model iPhone 6s and 6s Plus went on sale just two working days before the end of the last financial quarter.
"2015 financial year was the most successful in the history of Apple, revenue increased by 28%, to nearly $ 234 billion," - said CEO Tim Cook.
For the current (first) financial quarter, Apple expects revenue to range from $ 75.5 billion to $ 77.5 billion, an increase of 3.4% compared to last year. Gross margin will be 39-40% and operating expenses - $ 5.85-5.95 billion.