Apple reports record $53.3 billion revenue in Q3 2018, led by iPhone

Apple today announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2018, reporting quarterly revenue of $53.3 billion on sales of 41.3 million iPhones, 11.553 million iPads, 3.72 million Macs, and $9.548 billion in services. The company had offered a revenue guidance range between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion for the quarter, up from the third quarter of 2017’s revenue of $45.4 billion.

Analysts on Wall Street expected Apple to achieve 15 percent revenue growth and 31 percent growth in earnings per share over 2017’s third quarter. Apple actually achieved 17 percent revenue and 40 percent EPS growth year-over-year.

“We’re thrilled to report Apple’s best June quarter ever, and our fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “Our Q3 results were driven by continued strong sales of iPhone, Services and Wearables, and we are very excited about the products and services in our pipeline.”

The iPhone continues to account for a majority of Apple’s revenues, as that single product family brought in $29.906 billion of the $53.3 billion in revenues. Revenue from the iPhone family was notably up sharply — 20 percent — over the year-ago quarter.

While unit sales were up a meager one percent year-over-year across iPhones and iPads, they were down 13 percent for the Mac: One year ago, Apple sold 41.026 million iPhones, 11.424 million iPads, and 4.292 million Macs in the quarter. However, revenue from services jumped by 31 percent year-over-year from $7.266 billion in 2017, and “other products” revenue was up 37 percent — from $2.735 billion in 2017 to $3.74 billion in 2018.

Apple’s board of directors declared a cash dividend of $0.73 per share of common stock, payable August 16 to shareholders of record as of the close of business August 13.

For the fourth quarter of 2018, Apple is offering a revenue guidance range between $60 billion and $62 billion, with gross margin between 38 percent and 38.5 percent. That compares with Q4 2017’s projected range of $49 billion to $52 billion target range, which it surpassed last year with an actual revenue of $52.6 billion.

The company will be holding a financial results conference call with analysts shortly. We will be covering it live.