Apple's Q4 '13 Beats With $37.5B Revenue, $7.5B Profit And $8.26 EPS On Strong iPhone Sales

Apple has just released its fiscal Q4 2013 earnings, reporting $37.5B in revenue, $7.5B in net profit representing $8.26 per share. That marks a year-over-year growth of 4.2 percent in revenue and 4.7 percent decline in EPS, with net profit down 8.6 percent year over year.

Apple sold 33.8 million iPhones, 14.1 million iPads and 4.6 million Macs in the quarter, which allowed it to post record Q4 revenue. Analysts had estimated 33.4 million iPhones, 14.3 million iPads and 4.3 million Macs in the quarter. iPhone sales grew 26 percent to hit another record number. iPad sales were relatively flat. Apple sold a total of 71 million iPads in fiscal 2013. Apple sold just 3.5 million iPods in the 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 Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, in a statement.

For comparison, Apple brought in $35.3 billion in revenue last quarter, with $6.9 billion in profits at $7.47 EPS. Apple is currently down 2 percent in after-hours trading.

Apple Beats

Apple beat analyst expectations across the board for revenue, posting record Q4 numbers.

According to Fortune's collated estimates, street analysts had projected $37.14 billion in revenue with EPS of $8.16. Estimates put year-over-year revenue growth at 3 percent and earnings growth at -6 percent. WSJ estimates had placed EPS at $7.94, which would give Apple a win in both categories as well.

Apple's own guidance projected revenue at between $34 billion and $37 billion, with a gross margin of between 36 percent and 37 percent. Apple's estimates have become increasingly accurate over the past few quarters, ever since it changed the way that it gave guidance. Previously, it had a reputation for severely under-estimating future quarters and it's taken a bit of time for analysts to adjust to its new, more conservative outlook.

Apple finished the quarter with $146.76 billion cash on hand. Its projections for revenue in Q1 2014 are between $55 billion and $58 billion with gross margin of between 36.5 percent and 37.5 percent.

Apple's gross profits fell to 37 percent, the seventh quarter in a row for such a decline. Much of that can be attributed to lower margins on devices like newer Retina iPads and lower-priced iPhones. If it hits the higher end of its Q1 '14 estimates, it could reverse that for the first time in a while, but the lower end would mark another decline.

iPads are flat, Macs Down, iPhone up

iPod sales were down 35 percent year over year, Macs were down 7 percent over the same period and iPads were relatively flat. iTunes and software revenues were up 22 percent and accessories were up 5 percent.

Even with only a couple of weeks of iPhone sales on the charts, it still accounted for 52 percent of Apple's overall sales. The impact of the two new models, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s, likely won't be felt in full until Q1 2014.

The same can be said for the iPad, whose numbers are depressed due to no new model being launched in the period. We'll see impact from the iPad Air, Retina iPad mini and reduced cost iPad mini in Q1 2014.

The average selling price of iPad was $439 up from $436 in Q2 and iPhone ASP was $577 in Q4.

Apple specifically noted that revenue in Greater China was up 23.5 percent sequentially, and 5.6 percent year over year.

Article updated to note Apple beat both Fortune and WSJ estimates.

Image Credit: Karl Baron/Flickr CC