Notes of interest from Apple's Q4 2020 and annual earnings report

By Mike Wuerthele

Apple has published its fourth fiscal quarter of 2020 results, breaking all of the company's fourth fiscal quarter records. Here are some notes of interest from the report, including remarks from Apple CEO Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri surrounding the particulars of the report.

Tim Cook (left) and Luca Maestri (right)

Apple's third fiscal quarter of 2020 earnings

On Thursday afternoon, Apple posted record September quarter revenue of $64.7 billion and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $0.73. International sales accounted for 59 percent of the quarter's revenue.

"Apple capped off a fiscal year defined by innovation in the face of adversity with a September quarter record, led by all-time records for Mac and Services," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Despite the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, Apple is in the midst of our most prolific product introduction period ever, and the early response to all our new products, led by our first 5G-enabled iPhone lineup, has been tremendously positive. From remote learning to the home office, Apple products have been a window to the world for users as the pandemic continues, and our teams have met the needs of this moment with creativity, passion, and the kinds of big ideas that only Apple can deliver."

Apple's Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.205 per share of the Company's common stock. The dividend is payable on November 12, 2020 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 9, 2020.

While the company fell slightly short of the street's iPhone sales dollar value estimate, it exceeded Services, Wearables, Mac, and iPad revenue. Apple's iPhone 12 didn't launch during the last quarter, and zero sales of the device were realized, versus every other quarter for the last seven years having at least some revenue from that year's flagship release.

While Apple has recently launched new iPad lines, such as the fourth-generation iPad Air, only the 10.2-inch iPad was released at the end of the period, and it is unlikely to have made much of a dent in the quarter. Apple reports iPad revenue was $6.8 billion in revenue for the period, up year-on-year from last year's $4.66 billion figure.

The Mac segment had one prominent launch in the quarter, with the 27-inch 5K iMac updated in August. For the quarter, Apple reports Mac revenue at $9 billion, up from $6.99 billion last year.

The Wearables, Home, and Accessories category is likely to have enjoyed a few short weeks of extra sales from the launch of the Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE, which both shipped shortly after their mid-September launches. The category reports revenue of $7.9 billion, continuing its year-on-year uptick from last year of $6.52 billion.

China, an important region of growth for the tech giant, generated $7.9 billion in sales, down significantly from the $11.1 billion notched in the year-ago period.

AppleInsider interpretations of the results and observations are notated by initials at the end of the statement.

Highlights from the earnings report, and the following conference call

Apple's fourth quarter 2020 quarterly revenue and net profit