Topline
Apple delivered quarterly earnings solidly above Wall Street’s expectations Thursday, as Chinese demand concerns which drove Apple’s stock down for much of the last six months proved to be less severe than predicted.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, left, greets photographers in Indonesia last month.
Key Facts
Apple narrowly topped Wall Street’s predictions in its second fiscal quarter ending March 30, with its $1.53 earnings per share beating forecasts of $1.51 and its $90.8 billion of revenue topping estimates of $90.4 billion.
Its sales for the quarter were 4% lower than in 2023’s comparable period and 7% lower than in 2022’s.
The 8% year-over-year decline in revenues out of Apple’s greater China region strongly contributed to the slump, but last quarter’s $16.4 billion in sales in the region shattered forecasts of $15.3 billion.
Notably, Apple said it will buy back some $110 billion of its shares, its highest repurchasing effort ever in an effort to reverse dilution and bump the value of its shares, and upped its quarterly dividend to $0.25 per share.
Apple reported $46 billion of revenue from iPhone sales ($46 billion forecasted) and $23.9 billion of revenue from services ($23.1 billion forecasted), its unit including App Store transactions and repairs famed for its high profit margins.
Apple’s stock surged 5% following the release, building on its 3% gain during regular hours and trading at what would be its highest level since February.
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Big Number
$23.6 billion. That’s how much Apple brought in last quarter in net income. Apple is by far the most profitable American public company, with its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization almost $10 billion more than the next highest-earnings S&P 500 company, Microsoft, during firms’ most recent reporting periods.
Key Background
Apple’s overall earnings are robust compared to its peers, but Apple has fared far worse than many others on the stock market, with its share price down 7% year-to-date, far underperforming the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index’s 7% gain. That slump comes as investors sour on Apple’s negative earnings and sales growth, largely attributable to dampened iPhone demand especially out of China, and due to Apple’s perceived gap in artificial intelligence compared to its $2 trillion company peers Alphabet, Microsoft and Nvidia, all of whose earnings results already bear fruit of the generative AI boom. Apple stock’s 7% loss between its February and May earnings reports is reflective of the investor angst, as shares of Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet rose 3% and 11% between their respective first- and second-quarter reports and shares of Nvidia are up 9% since its February report. Apple is among a host of American multinational firms, such as Tesla and Starbucks, whose performance has slumped in recent quarters due to dwindling demand out of China, which accounted for 19% of all of Apple’s revenues in its most recent fiscal year. This quarter also featured several rare blemishes for Apple in the cancellation of its decade-long car project and a reported underwhelming debut for its Vision Pro mixed reality headsets.
What To Watch For
Any concrete updates on Apple’s generative AI projects, which CEO Tim Cook said to expect further information on at some point in 2024. Most analysts expect some sort of announcement at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference beginning June 10, with Morgan Stanley’s Erik Woodring predicting it will likely be in the form of software for Apple devices.
