Apple, Microsoft, and Google reveal their quarterly earnings reports

Public companies frequently file reports on earnings every quarter. Investors use quarterly earnings reports to assess whether the company has the financial strength necessary to support its investment. Tech giants including Google, Microsoft, and Apple have also revealed their quarterly earnings reports. Here are the key takeaways from their quarterly financial sheets.

Apple Q3 report

For April, May, and June of fiscal Q3 2021, Apple (AAPL) has released its earnings report. The company’s revenue was $81.43 billion for the quarter, with a benchmark profit of $21.74 billion. In terms of earnings-per-share, the company earned $1.30. The current stats are 36 percent higher than the year before.

In comparison, last year, the company achieved $59.7 billion in revenue and $11.25 billion in profit. Rather than reporting units sold, Apple reports revenue from each category of product. As a result, over 12% growth was reported for every product line in Apple’s portfolio.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said on the company’s third-quarter result,

“This quarter, our teams built on a period of unmatched innovation by sharing powerful new products with our users, at a time when using technology to connect people everywhere has never been more important, We’re continuing to press forward in our work to infuse everything we make with the values that define us — by inspiring a new generation of developers to learn to code, moving closer to our 2030 environment goal, and engaging in the urgent work of building a more equitable future.”

On an annual basis, iPhone sales grew by nearly 50%.  For the third quarter of fiscal 2021, here are the details.

• $39.57 billion: iPhone (Up 49.7% YOY)
• $8.24 billion: Mac (Up 16.38% YOY)
• $7.37 billion: iPad (Up 12% YOY)
• $8.78 billion: Wearables, Home, and Accessories (Up 36.12% YOY)
• $17.49 billion: Services (32.90% YOY)

Compared to Apple’s hardware profits, services sales produce a much higher profit margin. As a result, each dollar of added service sales substantially drives up Apple’s profits. Still, Apple generates most of its revenue from hardware sales. iPhone prices alone account for 48.6% of the company’s total revenue, growing by 49.8% over the same period last year.

CFO Luca Maestri added,

“Our record June quarter operating performance included new revenue records in each of our geographic segments, double-digit growth in each of our product categories, and a new all-time high for our installed base of active devices, [….] We generated $21 billion of operating cash flow, returned nearly $29 billion to our shareholders during the quarter, and continued to make significant investments across our business to support our long-term growth plans.”

It is Apple’s sixth consecutive quarter since it stopped providing formal guidance following the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although, Apple warned that a silicon shortage could harm its iPhone and iPad sales in the September quarter.

Alphabet Q2 report:

Today, Alphabet Inc. announced its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2021. Despite the Covid pandemic, total Google advertising revenue grew 69% to $50.44 billion from the previous quarter.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, said

 “In Q2, there was a rising tide of online activity in many parts of the world, and we’re proud that our services helped so many consumers and businesses. Our long-term investments in AI and Google Cloud are helping us drive significant improvements in everyone’s digital experience.”

Here are the breakdowns.

• Earnings per share (EPS): $27.26
• Revenue: $61.88 billion
• YouTube advertising revenue: $7.00 billion

• Google Cloud revenue: $4.63 billion
• Traffic acquisition costs (TAC): $10.93 billion

“Our strong second-quarter revenues of $61.9 billion reflect elevated consumer online activity and broad-based strength in advertiser spend. Again, we benefited from excellent execution across the board by our teams,” said Ruth Porat, CFO of Google and Alphabet

Microsoft Q4 report:

Microsoft announced continuing strong financial results despite the pandemic, which has accelerated the transition to cloud computing. During the three months that ended in June, Microsoft generated sales of $46.2 billion, up 21 percent year over year, and profits jumped 47 percent to $16.5 billion, its most profitable quarter.

“Our results show that when we execute well and meet customers’ needs in differentiated ways in large and growing markets, we generate growth,” Satya Nadella, the company’s chief executive, said in a statement.

The commercial cloud division of Microsoft posted $19.5 billion in revenue in the third quarter, up 36 percent from the previous quarter.

• Revenue: $46.15 billion
• Earnings per share: $2.17
• Productivity and Business Processes: $14.69 billion
• Intelligent Cloud: $17.38 billion
• More Personal Computing: $14.09 billion