Apple’s Fiscal Fourth Quarter Results Surpasses All Estimates Except iPhone Revenue

Apple’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings results surpassed all estimates but fell short of the estimate for iPhone revenue. The company’s shares were up 1 percent in extended trading.

The company reported earnings of $1.29 per share beating the expectation of $1.27 per share. It reported revenue of $90.15 billion beating an expectation of $88.90 billion. Revenue was up 8.1 percent year over year. iPhone revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter came in at $42.63 billion, falling short of an estimate of $43.21, and up 9.67 percent year over year. Mac revenue for the quarter stood at $11.51 billion surpassing an estimate of $9.36 billion. Mac revenue was up 25.39 percent year over year. iPad revenue for the quarter came in at $7.17 billion, falling short of the estimate of $7.94 billion. iPad revenue was down 13.06 percent year over year. Revenue from the company’s “Other Products” segment came in at $9.65 billion, surpassing an estimate of $9.17 billion. It was also up 9.85 percent year over year. Services revenue for the quarter came in at $19.19 billion, short of the estimate of $20.10 billion. It was, however, up 4.98 percent year over year. The company also reported a gross margin of 42.3 percent, more than the estimate of 42.1 percent. 

The company failed to provide guidance for its fiscal first quarter. It hasn’t provided guidance since 2020 over reasons surrounding uncertainty.

During the earnings call, the company’s CFO Luca Maestri provided a few data points which sent the company’s stock plummeting briefly during the earnings call. He said that the company’s total year-over-year revenue would grow in December by less than 8.1 percent during the September quarter. He also added that Mac sales would drop in the fiscal first quarter year over year. Services would grow year over year during the already ongoing quarter but would be affected by the macroeconomic environment. “We’re not providing revenue guidance, but we are sharing some directional insight,” he said.

The company’s revenue grew by 8 percent during the fiscal fourth quarter. CEO Tim Cook said it would have grown double-digits but for the strong dollar. Total sales for the fiscal year 2022 grew 8 percent to $394.3 billion. “The foreign exchange headwinds were over 600 basis points for the quarter. So it was significant. We would have grown in double digits without the foreign exchange headwinds,” CEO Tim Cook said. 

Like many other companies across the globe, Apple has slowed down hiring. “We are hiring deliberately. And so we’ve slowed the pace of hiring,” Tim Cook said. 

He also noted that the company’s performance in phone sales was strong despite a general demand decline in smartphones which other smartphone companies are struggling with.  He also said that the company saw an increase in people who were purchasing an Apple phone for the first time. “We clearly countered the industry trends on the phone if you look at third-party estimates of what the smartphone industry did,” he said.