Apple’s record breaking profits fuelled by iPhone, Mac and App Store sales

Apple has announced its first quarter financial results, reporting it's highest-ever revenue and earnings with a 48% increase in EPS (earnings per share).

For its fiscal 2015 first quarter ended December 27, 2014, the company posted a record quarterly revenue of $74.6 billion and record quarterly net profit of $18 billion, or $3.06 per diluted share.

These results compare to revenue of $57.6 billion and net profit of $13.1 billion, or $2.07 per diluted share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Gross margin was 39.9% compared to 37.9% in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 65% 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.

During the quarter, Apple sold a record 74.5 million iPhones, up from 51 million a year earlier. Mac sales were at 5.5 million units sold, up from 4.8 million in the year-ago quarter. iPad sales, however, fell from 21.4 million from 26 milion.

"We'd like to thank our customers for an incredible quarter, which saw demand for Apple products soar to an all-time high," says Tim Cook, Apple CEO.

"Our revenue grew 30% over last year to $74.6 billion, and the execution by our teams to achieve these results was simply phenomenal," he says.

"Our exceptional results produced EPS growth of 48% over last year, and $33.7 billion in operating cash flow during the quarter, an all-time record," says Luca Maestri, Apple 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," says Maestri.

Apple predicts the following figures for its fiscal 2015 second quarter: revenue between $52 billion and $55 billion, gross margin between 38.5% and 39.5%, operating expenses between $5.4 billion and $5.5 billion, other income/(expense) of $350 million, and tax rate of 26.3%.

Apple's board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.47 per share of the company's common stock. The dividend is payable on February 12, 2015, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on February 9, 2015.