An Apple store in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Image credit: Apple.
Apple (AAPL -0.81%) generates an extraordinary amount of revenue, totaling $253 billion in the 12 months ended September 26, 2015. What does it do with all this money? The slideshow below answers this question.
The slideshow casts light on three particularly interesting points:
- First, despite the extent of Apple's revenue, it still pales in comparison to Wal-Mart's (WMT -0.32%), which produced $484 billion in revenue during the same period. The discount retailer is a true outlier in this regard.
- Second, while Apple may not beat Wal-Mart on the top line, it certainly does when it comes to net income, thanks to the iPhone maker's unusually wide profit margins. Apple's pre-tax operating margin during the past 12 months was 30.5%. That's nearly six times the width of Wal-Mart's 5.3% pre-tax operating margin, and twice that of the 17.2% median figure for the S&P 500's 100 biggest companies.
- Third, Apple pays more in income taxes than any other publicly traded U.S. company. Its tax bill during the time period examined added up to $19.1 billion. That compares to a $1.4 billion median among the 100 biggest S&P 500 companies. Even Wal-Mart, with almost twice as much revenue, paid less than half this amount, or $7.4 billion, during its previous four quarters.
What else can investors learn about Apple from an analysis of its revenue flows? Scroll through the brief slideshow below to find out.
All data in the slideshow, as well as that about Apple and Wal-Mart above, was sourced from YCharts.com on November 24, 2015.
