Apple said Monday that fourth-quarter profits slipped roughly 8.5 percent to $7.5 billion, or $8.26 per diluted share, on revenues of $37.5 billion -- better than most Wall Street analysts had been anticipating.
The results compare to revenue of $36 billion and net profit of $8.2 billion, or $8.67 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin came in at 37 percent compared to 40 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 60 percent of the quarter's revenue.
Apple sold 33.8 million iPhones, a record for the September quarter, compared to 26.9 million in the year-ago quarter. It also sold 14.1 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 14 million in the year-ago quarter. Mac sales came in at 4.6 million, down slight from 4.9 million in the year-ago quarter.
"We're pleased to report a strong finish to an amazing year with record fourth quarter revenue, including sales of almost 34 million iPhones," said Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook. "We're excited to go into the holidays with our new iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s, iOS 7, the new iPad mini with Retina Display and the incredibly thin and light iPad Air, new MacBook Pros, the radical new Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks and the next generation iWork and iLife apps for OS X and iOS."
On average, Wall Street analysts were expecting Apple to report earnings of $7.93 per share on revenue of $36.84 billion, driven largely by sales of roughy 31 million iPhones, 14.5 million iPads and 4.6 million Macs.
Apple's Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $3.05 per share of the Company's common stock, payable on November 14, 2013, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 11, 2013.
"We generated $9.9 billion in cash flow from operations and returned an additional $7.8 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the September quarter, bringing cumulative payments under our capital return program to $36 billion," added Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer.
Apple provided the following guidance for its fiscal 2014 first quarter:
- revenue between $55 billion and $58 billion
- gross margin between 36.5 percent and 37.5 percent
- operating expenses between $4.4 billion and $4.5 billion
- other income/(expense) of $200 million
- tax rate of 26.25 percent
Apple will provide live streaming of its Q4 2013 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PDT today. AppleInsider will provide full coverage.