Apple's $100 billion stock buyback overshadows iPhone

By Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) - Apple Inc reported resilient iPhone sales in the face of waning global demand and promised $100 billion in additional stock buybacks, reassuring investors that its decade-old smartphone invention had life in it yet.

Apple's quarterly results topped Wall Street forecasts, which dropped ahead of the report on growing concern over the iPhone. The Cupertino company also was more optimistic about the current quarter than most financial analysts, driving shares up 3.6 percent to $175.25 after hours.

Suppliers around the globe had warned of smartphone weakness, playing into fears that the company known for popularizing personal computers, tablets and smartphones had become too reliant on the iPhone.

 

Sales of 52.2 million iPhones against a Wall Street target of 52.3 million was a comfort and up from 50.7 million last year, according to data from Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Apple bought $23.5 billion of stock in the March quarter, and said it plans to hike its dividend 16 percent, compared with a 10.5 percent increase last year. Analysts believe the heavy emphasis on buybacks will bolster share prices, but some investors wished Apple had found different uses for the cash.

"I'd hoped for more on the dividend side or maybe a strategic investment," said Hal Eddins, chief economist for Apple shareholder Capital Investment Counsel. "I assume Apple can't find a strategic investment at the current prices that will move the needle for them. The $100 billion buyback is good for right now but it's not exactly looking to the future."

The cash Apple earmarked for stock buybacks is about twice the $50 billion market capitalisation of electric car maker Tesla Inc .

Apple posted revenue for its March quarter of $61.1 billion, up from $52.9 billion last year. Wall Street expected $60.8 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Average selling prices for iPhones were $728, compared with Wall Street expectations of $742.

The company also predicted revenue of $51.5 billion to $53.5 billion in the June quarter, ahead of the $51.6 billion Wall Street expected as of Monday evening, and the share repurchases in the March quarter drove Apple's cash net of debt down slightly to $145 billion.

"We are returning the cash to investors as we have promised," Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told Reuters in an interview.

Profits were $2.73 per share versus expectations of $2.68 per share, as of Monday, and up from $2.10 a year ago.

Apple's services business, which includes Apple Music, the App Store and iCloud, posted $9.1 billion in revenue compared with expectations of $8.3 billion. Heading into earnings, investors were hopeful that growth in that segment could help offset the cooling global smartphone market.

Julie Ask, an analyst with Forrester, said Apple's services segment results were positive but warned that Apple needs to continue to boost subscriptions on its platforms, which reached 270 million users in the March quarter and includes people who subscribe to third-party apps on the iPhone as well as Apple's own services like iCloud.

"Apps are carrying most (services revenue) right now, but Apple needs to get to a place where it's mostly subscriptions and monthly fees and not just one-off downloads," Ask said.

Apple traditionally updates its share buy-back and dividend programme each spring, and the $100 billion it added this year compares with an increase of $50 billion last year.

In February, Apple said it planned to draw down its excess cash, though Chief Executive Tim Cook had downplayed the possibility of a special dividend.

But investors have had concerns around Apple because of a brewing trade tensions with China. While there has not yet been a tariff on devices such as Apple's iPhone, Cook last week traveled to Washington to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss trade matters.

"We believe tariffs at the end of the day are a tax on the consumer," Maestri said.

Apple has been emphasizing its contributions to the U.S. economy in recent months, outlining a $30 billion U.S. spending plan and highlighting the tens of billions of dollars it spends each year with U.S.-based suppliers.

In recent months, Apple has been emphasizing the size of its overall user base, which includes used iPhones, rather than focusing strictly on new device sales, a sign of the increasing importance of making money off users without selling them new hardware.

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Peter Henderson and Lisa Shumaker)