Apple Q1 2017 Earnings Report: Apple Beats Estimates, Returns To Growth In iPhone Sales

After several months of slipping iPhone sales, Apple finally returned to form in its earnings report for the first quarter of 2017. The company posted earnings and revenue figures that surpassed estimates and saw is iPhone sales grow again.

The report on Tuesday—which produced a two percent bounce for the Cupertino company in after hours trading—saw Apple report $78.4 billion in revenue. The figure marks a three percent boost year-over-year, and beat Wall Street expectations of $77.4 billion.

Much of the company’s success was driven by sales of the iPhone 7. Bolstered by the holidays, Apple moved 78 million units of its popular handset—topping Wall Street’s expectations by nearly two million. The figure marked a four percent growth in device sales year-over-year.

While the iPhone returned to growth after nearly a year of slumping sales, the rest of Apple’s line up wasn’t quite as successful. Apple sold 13 million iPads, 3 million fewer than the company moved in the first quarter of 2016. Mac sales were essentially stagnant with 5.3 million sold—the same amount as the year prior.

The company continues to not disclose figures for Apple Watch sales as an individual item. In a group labeled “other products” that includes the Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Beats products, Apple noted an eight percent drop in sales year-over-year.

Despite this drop, Apple CEO Tim Cook said during an earnings call that it was the “best quarter ever for Apple Watch” in both unit sales and revenue. He said there were additional opportunities for the company to increase its wearables sales with the introduction of AirPods, its wireless earbuds—a product sure to increase revenue if people keep losing them and have to purchase replacements.

Cook also said the quarter was the company’s best ever for services—a category that includes Apple Music, which cracked 20 million subscribers in December 2016. That bodes well for the company, which views digital content as an area of growth for the future. Apple is reportedly exploring the possibility of launching original video content that it will release through Apple Music as early as 2017.

The positive report produced a cash dividend of $0.57 per share for its stockholders. Apple also added to its own cash pile with $8.49 billion, bringing its total reserve to $246.09 billion–$230.2 billion of which is held overseas, as was revealed during the earnings call.