- Shares of Apple ($AAPL) ripped higher after revealing stronger earning numbers than anticipated by analysts
- Revenue came in at $84.3 billion, beating estimates by 330 million
- Earnings per share came in at $4.18, beating by $0.01
Despite Tim Cook lowering revenue guidance a few weeks back, Apple was able to beat estimates by a penny and revenue by $330 million. The tech giant posted revenue of $84.3 billion with earnings per share coming in at $4.18.
“While it was disappointing to miss our revenue guidance, we manage Apple for the long term, and this quarter’s results demonstrate that the underlying strength of our business runs deep and wide,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Our active installed base of devices reached an all-time high of 1.4 billion in the first quarter, growing in each of our geographic segments. That’s a great testament to the satisfaction and loyalty of our customers, and it’s driving our Services business to new records thanks to our large and fast-growing ecosystem.”
Apple on Tuesday reported upbeat fiscal 2019 first-quarter earnings and revenue, pushing its shares up. But revenue from iPhone business, which accounts for most of the company’s profits, dropped 15% during the quarter. This underlines the challenges the tech giant is facing in trying to reignite declining sales of its luxury smartphones, particularly in China, its third-largest market.
Apple also provided fiscal second-quarter guidance of $55 billion to $59 billion, which would be a decline of about 3.4% year-over-year. Shares of the company gained $8.52, or 5.51% to $163.20 in after-hours trading.
AAPL Earnings & Outlook
The tech giant posted fiscal first-quarter profit of $20 billion, or $4.18 per share, slightly down from $20.1 billion, or $3.89 per share, in the same period a year ago. Analysts had called for earnings of $4.17 per share based on figures compiled by Refinitiv.
Companywide revenue declined 4.5% to $84.31 billion for the three months to December 29, in line with its statement earlier this month calling for revenues of $84 billion for the quarter. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv expected projected revenue of $83.97 billion. In the same period a year earlier, the firm generated revenues of $88.3 billion.
iPhone sales totaled to $52 billion for the quarter, compared with $61.6 billion from the prior-year period. Sales of iPads, Macs, Services and other products grew 19% during the quarter, thanks to the company’s recent strategy of hiking MacBook Air price by 20%, the iPad Pro by 25%, and the Mac mini by about 60%.
Apple’s services segment, which includes streaming music subscriptions, insurance on devices, and app store sales generated revenues of $10.9 billion, up 19% from $8.5 billion in fiscal 2018 first-quarter.
Greater China brought in revenues of $13.2 billion during the December quarter, down 27% from $18 billion in the comparable period last a year ago. Sales in Europe fell 3.3%, while sales in the Americas rose about 5%.
Looking ahead, Apple hopes to report fiscal second-quarter revenue of between $55 billion to $59 billion, while analysts polled by FactSet model revenues of $59.98 billion.
