Apple bested analyst expectations in earnings and revenue for its fiscal first quarter, muting earlier warnings by CEO Tim Cook that results would disappoint due to lackluster iPhone sales.
Shares of Apple rose 4 percent in after hours trading following its earnings results on Tuesday. During a previous guidance, Cook cited weaker demand in China as a major factor affecting iPhone sales.
“If you look at our results, our shortfall is over 100% from iPhone, and it is primarily in greater China,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said on CNBC. “So we have sort of a collection of items going on, some that are macroeconomic and some Apple specific,”
“In addition, these and other factors resulted in fewer iPhone upgrades than we had anticipated,” Cook added in a letter to investors.
Wall Street Expectations:
- EPS: $4.17 per Refinitiv consensus estimates
- Revenue: $83.97 billion per Refinitiv consensus estimates
- iPhone revenue: $52.67 billion per Refinitiv consensus estimates
- Services revenue: $10.87 billion per Refinitiv consensus estimates
Actual earnings results:
- EPS: $4.18
- Revenue: $84.3 billion
- iPhone revenue: $51.98
- Services revenue: $10.9
It’s been a month since shares of Apple were battered as a result of weaker guidance as the tech giant projected lower revenue due to weaker demand for its iPhone. Analyst downgrades hurt the stock as most pointed to less-than-stellar iPhone sales as a weak link for 2019.
That number was reflected in the final first-quarter earnings results as the iPhone maker beat expectations in earnings per share, revenue and services revenue, but as expected, fell short on iPhone revenue.
ETFs to watch during Wednesday’s session include those with the biggest Apple holdings, such as the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEArca: XLK)and Vanguard Information Technology ETF (NYSEArca: VGT). XLK ticked slightly higher by 0.08 percent after hours after falling 1.01 percent on Tuesday.
Last year, Apple reported a fiscal fourth quarter revenue of $62.9 billion, which represented a 20% jump from the same time a year ago, as well as, a quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.91–a rise of 41%.
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