Apple Now Most Profitable Corporation In History Of World

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Tuesday posted record quarterly revenue of $74.6 billion and record quarterly net profit of $18 billion, or $3.06 per diluted share.

The financial results for its fiscal 2015 first quarter ended December 27, 2014, compare to revenue of $57.6 billion and net profit of $13.1 billion, or $2.07 per diluted share, in last year’s same quarter. Gross margin was 39.9 percent compared to 37.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 65 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The results were fueled by all-time record revenue from iPhone and Mac sales, as well as record performance of the App Store. iPhone unit sales of 74.5 million also set a new record, which means Apple sold 34,000 iPhones every hour for three months. The company now has enough cash on hand to buy 480 S&P 500 companies, outright.

“We’d like to thank our customers for an incredible quarter, which saw demand for Apple products soar to an all-time high,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Our revenue grew 30 percent over last year to $74.6 billion, and the execution by our teams to achieve these results was simply phenomenal.”

But company records aren’t the only records Apple is setting. The latest earnings report marks the most ever reported by a U.S. corporation, making Apple the most profitable company in the history of the world. Quarterly sales for iPhone are more than Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), combined.

“Our exceptional results produced EPS growth of 48 percent over last year, and $33.7 billion in operating cash flow during the quarter, an all-time record,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We spent over $8 billion on our capital return program, bringing total returns to investors to almost $103 billion, over $57 billion of which occurred in just the last 12 months.”