Apple ‘proud’ of strong quarterly figures

Technology giant Apple has experienced a revenue boost on the same time last year, its quarterly figures show.

The company posted quarterly revenue of $45.6bn (€33.0bn) last night and quarterly net profit of $10.2bn — both up on the same period last year.

These results compare with revenue of $43.6bn and net profit of $9.5bn a year ago.

The figures, however, are down on the last quarter — which took in new product launches.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook said: “We’re very proud of our quarterly results, especially our strong iPhone sales and record revenue from services.

“We’re eagerly looking forward to introducing more new products and services that only Apple could bring to market.”

Last quarter, new landmark products helped reverse a profits slump and post record revenue figures for Apple.

It was the first period fully taking into account sales of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, as well as marking the launch of the iPad Air and iPad mini.

Apple’s revenues hit $57.6bn for the last three months of 2013, a new quarterly record for the company.

Profits of $13.1bn were also made — equal with the record profits set 12 months previously.

Speaking after the company’s figures were released last night, Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s chief financial officer, said: “We generated $13.5bn in cash flow from operations and returned almost $21bn in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the March quarter.

“That brings cumulative payments under our capital return program to $66bn.”

Apple’s (AAPL) share at the close of the US market was $524.75 US — down 1.31% on the start of the day.

Meanwhile, Facebook last night announced it tripled its income to $642m in the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year.

The social networking site also said its total number of monthly active users reached 1.28bn as of March 31, with 1.01bn of those users accessing its service on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Shares of Facebook were up nearly 3% at $63.05 in after-hours trading yesterday.