Earlier this month, Apple (AAPL -0.57%) closed out fiscal 2017 with excellent fourth-quarter results, showing a tech giant that is firing on all cylinders. Since returning to growth in its first quarter of fiscal 2017, Apple's growth story has continued to improve. Year-over-year growth in Apple's quarterly revenue has accelerated in each subsequent quarter throughout the year.
As investors look back at Apple's notable fiscal 2017 results, here are some of the most telling metrics behind Apple's surprising growth throughout the year.
Image source: Apple.
$269 billion: Apple wrapped up fiscal 2017 with a record $269 billion of cash and marketable securities. Since 94% of this cash is held overseas, Apple relies on its healthy balance sheet to access debt markets at extremely low interest rates to return cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.
Apple finished the year with $104 billion in long-term debt and $12 billion in commercial paper, short-term unsecured promissory notes.
$25.9 billion: Highlighting how Apple's Mac business is booming, Mac revenue in fiscal 2017 hit an all-time high of $25.9 billion. This was up an impressive 13% from Apple's Mac revenue in fiscal 2016. Much of this growth was fueled by Apple's launch of its redesigned MacBook Pro, which saw its momentum continue into the tech giant's fourth fiscal quarter, driving quarterly Mac sales up 25% year over year.
$30 billion: Apple's services business continued to surge higher in fiscal 2017, with revenue from the segment rising a whopping 23% year over year to $30 billion.
Apple's services segment, which includes revenue from digital content and services, AppleCare, Apple Pay, licensing, and other services, has grown to represent a significant portion of Apple's total revenue. As Apple's second largest product segment (iPhone, of course, is Apple's biggest segment) for the second year and a row, services accounted for 13.1% of sales, up from 11.3% of sales in fiscal 2016.
Apple said its strong growth in services revenue during fiscal 2017 was primarily driven by growth in App Store and licensing revenue.
$12.9 billion: Apple's "other products" sales, which include sales of Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, iPod Touch, and other accessories, saw strong double-digit year-over-year growth of 16%. Based on Apple's bullish update on its wearables products in the company's fourth-quarter earnings call, much of this growth was probably driven by its wearables products: Apple Watch and AirPods.
Image source: Apple.
Apple said Apple Watch revenue has risen more than 50% year over year for three consecutive quarters. And management also said that its wearables business as a whole was up 75% year over year in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2017
$229.2 billion: Apple's total revenue for fiscal 2017 was $229.2 billion, up 6% year over year. Further, Apple notably saw revenue growth in every geographic operating segment except Greater China.
|
Operating Segment |
Fiscal 2017 |
Fiscal 2016 |
Change |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Americas |
$96.6 billion |
$86.6 billion |
12% |
|
Europe |
$54.9 billion |
$50.0 billion |
10% |
|
Greater China |
$44.8 billion |
$48.5 billion |
(8%) |
|
Japan |
$17.7 billion |
$16.9 billion |
5% |
|
Rest of Asia-Pacific |
$15.2 billion |
$13.7 billion |
11% |
|
Total net sales |
$229.2 billion |
$215.6 billion |
6% |
Data source: Apple's 10-K filing for fiscal 2017. Table by author.
10.8%: In fiscal 2017, Apple put to rest concerns about its ability to return to growth. Not only did revenue rise 6% year over year, but earnings per share climbed 10.8% to $9.21, up from $8.31 in the year-ago. Outsize growth in Apple's EPS was driven by the company's aggressive share-repurchase program.
47%: Evident by Apple stock's performance recently, investors are onboard with Apple's reinvigorated growth story. The stock is up an incredible 47% since Apple reported its fourth-quarter results for fiscal 2016 in October of last year.
