Looking for the silver lining to the otherwise grey cloud known as the coronavirus pandemic? Well, the big tech giants like Apple, Google and Facebook got a hell of a lot richer.
The big five tech companies – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are set to release last quarter’s profits this week, which are expected to be in excess of $US65 billion collectively.
In the three months to the end of March, all five companies soared, but the period was particularly fruitful for Apple.
Although the company hasn’t released its official figures yet, Wall St has estimated $US20 billion in profits for the quarter.
For those of you playing along at home, that equates to a staggering $193,000 per minute.
Apple will officially drop its quarterly results on Wednesday (US time), which will reflect the surge in iPhone 12 sales, and the strength of the company’s services like Apple TV+ and Apple Music, which have both seen huge spikes amid the coronavirus pandemic.
According to data from the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, the four iPhone 12 models accounted for 61 per cent of US sales.
Additionally, the report noted that the iPhone 11 retained its position as the highest-selling Apple model, seemingly proving that consumers are happy to stick to the slightly older model to save a buck.
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The official report will be released at 6:30am AEST on Thursday April 29, and will be immediately followed by a conference call with Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri, who will give more of an insight into how the company is tracking (spoiler alert: very well).
Experts have projected that the report will see a 10 per cent increase in dividends for Apple shareholders, bringing the annual payout to 90 cents per share, according to Market Watch.
Additionally, it’s expected that Apple will authorise further stock buybacks, with Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty predicting that the company could add as much as $US60 billion to its buyback authorisation this quarter.
Although we’ll have to wait until Thursday to see Apple’s results, EV giant Tesla is expected to make its announcement on Monday afternoon, with the company already asserting that the results vastly exceeded expectations.
To put it simply, it’ll probably be a good week for anyone who bought Apple stocks in 1993.
Disclaimer: Nothing in this article should be taken as financial advice.