Apple's Fiscal 2017 First Quarter Report: Diversity & $78.4 Billion in Revenue

Apple announced yesterday their revenue and sales for their first quarter. Their fiscal 2017 first quarter ended December 31, 2016. "The Company posted all-time record quarterly revenue of $78.4 billion and all-time record quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.36,"stated Apple's proxy statement.  

Diversity in hiring is concern of Apple shareholders.  Mr. James Bell, African-American is a director on Apple's board. He is the retired Executive vice President, Corporate President and chief Financial Officer of the Boeing Company, a Fortune 500 company. Diversity of Senior Management and the Board at Apple was the goal of the  proposal from Apple's shareholders this year and the board voted against it. Apple dedicated $40 million to years of partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund; and has partnerships with the National Society of Black Engineers and President Obama's ConnectED. 

"Apple has joined President Obama’s ConnectED initiative and pledged $100 million to bring technology and services into 114 underserved schools across the United States. Under this program, we are donating an iPad to every student, a Mac and iPad to every teacher, and an Apple TV to every classroom, as well as services and professional development for teachers. There are now more than 50,000 students learning, creating, and exploring on iPad through our ConnectED commitment, 92% of whom are of Alaskan Native, Asian, Black, Hispanic, or Native American heritage," stated Apple's proxy statement. 

“We’re thrilled to report that our holiday quarter results generated Apple’s highest quarterly revenue ever, and broke multiple records along the way. We sold more iPhones than ever before and set all-time revenue records for iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Revenue from Services grew strongly over last year, led by record customer activity on the App Store, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline.”

“Our outstanding business performance resulted in a new all-time record for earnings per share, and over $27 billion in operating cash flow,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We returned nearly $15 billion to investors through share repurchases and dividends during the quarter, bringing cumulative payments through our capital return program to over $200 billion.”

--Stephanie