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Apple Posts $18B Quarterly Profit, the Highest By Any Company, Ever

Posted by Soulskill on from the all-about-the-benjamins dept.

jmcbain writes: Yesterday, Apple reported its financial results for the quarter ending December 27, 2014. The company posted $18 billion in profit (on $74 billion in revenue), the largest quarterly profit by any company, ever. The previous record was $16 billion by Russia's Gazprom (the largest natural gas extractor in the world) in 2011. Apple sold 74.5 million iPhones last quarter, along with 5.5 million Macs and 21.4 million iPads.

3 of 534 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Tax by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 5, Informative

    They are paying 26% tax. It's right there in the filing.

  2. per Wikinvest by rmdingler · · Score: 5, Informative
    Walmart: 5.5% operating margin.

    Amazon: .1% operating margin.

    Apple: 29.3% operating margin.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  3. Re:Tax by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 5, Informative

    It looks to me like you've got this wrong.

    According to this Forbes article from 2013, Apple routes all non-US sales revenue through Ireland. That's sketchy on the part of both Ireland and Apple, and offensive to all the other countries that get no cut from Apple's sales within their borders.

    According to this financial statement, Apple paid $9.48b in current US income tax in 2014, $2.15b in current foreign income tax.

    Pooling everything, in 2014 Apple had pre-tax income of $53.48b, $13.97b total income tax, for a net income of $39.51b.

    I don't know how those numbers compare to other large corporations, or "socially responsible corporations", or whatever you want to compare to. But claiming that Apple routes US sales revenues through Ireland, or that Apple doesn't pay tax on its profits, appears to be completely false.

    If I'm misinterpreting these numbers, please post corrections.