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Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2021 third quarter on July 27.

Note that Apple's 2020 fiscal year ended in Sept. 26, 2020. Its current earnings report is thus for its fiscal third quarter, which coincides with the second quarter of the calendar year.

Financial highlights

Driven by better-than-expected iPhone sales, total revenue hit $81.43 billion, a rise of 36.4% that was above analyst expectations of $73.30 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Earnings were $1.30 per share, above estimates of $1.01 per share, according to Refinitiv.

Apple's services revenue rose 32.9% YOY, marking the fastest pace of growth since Q3 FY 2018. The company's services include the its digital content stores and streaming services, such as its various App Store platforms, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, and Apple TV+. Apple also generates services revenue from AppleCare, advertising services, cloud services, and other services, including Apple Card and Apple Pay.

Profit margins on services sales are dramatically larger than on Apple's hardware profits. That means that each dollar of added service sales disproportionately boosts Apple's profits compared to hardware sales.

Hardware sales still make up the majority of Apple's revenue, however. Apple's iPhone sales alone, which rose 49.8% YOY, accounted for 48.6% of total revenue.

Apple's strongest sales growth came from China, where Chief Executive Tim Cook said that customers are buying up accessories such as the Apple Watch to pair with their iPhones. China sales grew 58% to $14.76 billion in the fiscal third quarter ended June 26.

No future guidance

Apple did not provide any specific future guidance in its earnings release. It hasn't provided revenue guidance since the start of the pandemic, citing uncertainty.

Yet the euphoria quickly turned to disappointment for investors as Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said revenue growth would slow in the September quarter. The “very strong double-digit” growth, Maestri said, won’t match the 36% growth in the June quarter.

A less favorable foreign exchange impact, normalizing services growth, and supply constraints from the global chip shortage were the culprits, Apple’s finance chief said.

While Apple’s supply warning must not be ignored, it’s worth remembering that the company warned in April that it could take a $3 billion to $4 billion hit from the semiconductor crisis in the third quarter. Look how that turned out.

Chief Executive Cook said, Apple was limited in how many Macs and iPads it could sell because of chip shortages but that the hit to Apple's overall revenue from the shortage was "lower than the low end" of its previously forecasted range. Sales of iPads and Macs were $7.37 billion and $8.24 billion, compared with analyst expectations of $7.15 billion and $8.07 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

Apple's Share Buyback

One of the important factors supporting Apple's stock price is stock repurchase.

Apple in April raised its share repurchase authorization by $90 billion, which is significantly higher than last year's $50 billion outlay and 2019's $75 billion.

Tim Cook said Apple already returned $29 billion to shareholders in the June quarter, during the company’s earnings call. The shareholder rewards were split between $3.8 billion in dividend payments and $17.5 billion in stock repurchases.

Luca Maestri, the company’s CFO, outlined that due to changes in the tax laws:

“Tax reform will allow us to pursue a more optimal capital structure for our company… and given the increased financial and operational flexibility from the access to our foreign cash, we are targeting to become approximately net cash neutral over time.”

So, net cash neutrality is what Apple is after.