Apple Reports Impressive Fiscal Third Quarter Earnings Results

Shares of big tech company Apple were up more than 3 percent in Thursday’s extended trading after the company issued its fiscal third-quarter earnings results. These results surpassed the estimate of analysts.

For the second quarter of 2022, the company reported earnings per share of $1.20 compared to the estimate of $1.16 that analysts had expected. Earnings per share were, however, down 8 percent year-over-year.

Revenue for the quarter came in at $83 billion, surpassing an estimate of $82.81 billion that analysts had forecasted for the second quarter. Revenue was up 2 percent year-over-year.

Revenue from the sale of iPhones for the quarter came in at $40.67 billion and was up 3 percent year-over-year. Analysts forecasted $38.33 billion for the quarter. Services revenue was reported at $19.60 billion for the quarter, falling below the forecast of $19.70 billion from analysts. It, however, was up 12 percent year-over-year. Other Products revenue came in at $8.08 billion compared to the $8.86 billion that analysts had expected and were down 8 percent year-over-year. Mac revenue which came in at $7.38 billion fell below the expectation of $8.70 billion and was down 10 percent year-over-year. iPad revenue of $7.22 surpassed the estimate of 6.94 billion and was down 2 percent year-over-year. Apple reported a gross margin of 43.26 percent compared to analysts’ figure of 42.61 percent.

The company failed to provide guidance for the fiscal fourth quarter. “In terms of an outlook in the aggregate, we expect revenue to accelerate in the September quarter despite seeing some pockets of softness,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during an interview. Analysts forecast earnings per share of $1.31 and revenue of $90 billion for the fiscal fourth quarter.

Compared to a year ago when Apple’s revenue grew by 36 percent, only 2 percent growth was recorded this year. The company’s CEO, however, revealed that the results were better than expected. CFO Luca Maestri also explained how it was a challenging environment to operate in right now.

CEO Tim Cook said that the company is witnessing inflation like many others, but this won’t limit its ability to make investments. “We do see inflation in our cost structure. We see it in things like logistics and wages and certain silicon components and we’re still hiring, but we’re doing it on a deliberate basis.”