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Apple (AAPL) Posts Earnings Beat & Strong Guidance, Hikes Dividend By 16%

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Apple Inc. (AAPL - Free Report) just released its latest quarterly financial results, posting earnings of $2.73 per share and revenues of $61.1 billion.

Currently, AAPL is a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), but that could change based on today’s results. Shares of the company have dipped slightly over the past month but saw a roughly 2% gain during regular trading hours today.

The stock is currently up 4.1% to $176.02 per share in after-hours trading shortly after its earnings report was released.

Apple:

Beat earnings estimates. The company posted earnings of $2.73 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.69. Investors should note that this consensus projection has trended downward over the duration of the quarter.

Matched revenue estimates. The company saw revenue figures of $61.1 billion, matching our consensus estimate of $61.1 billion.

Total revenue was up 16% year over year, while earnings improved 30% from the year-ago period. The company sold 52.22 million iPhones in the quarter, missing our consensus estimate of 52.94 million. Still, iPhone unit sales were up 3% from the prior-year quarter, with iPhone segment revenue coming in 14% higher. Total revenue in its Services segment surged 31% to touch $9.19 billion.

“Given our confidence in Apple’s future, we are very happy to announce that our Board has approved a new $100 billion share repurchase authorization and a 16 percent increase in our quarterly dividend,” said CFO Luca Maestri.

Apple said it expects third quarter fiscal 2018 revenue to fall in the range of $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion. Our latest consensus estimate was calling for revenue of $51.3 billion.

Here’s a graph that looks at Apple’s recent earnings performance:

Apple Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Apple Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | Apple Inc. Quote

Apple Inc. is engaged in designing, manufacturing and marketing mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players. The company's products and services include iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod, Apple TV, a portfolio of consumer and professional software applications, the iOS and Mac OS X operating systems, iCloud, and a range of accessory, service and support offerings.

Check back later for our full analysis on AAPL’s earnings report!

Want more market analysis from this author? Make sure to follow @Ryan_McQueeney on Twitter!

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