Apple earlier today posted its earnings report from the recent holiday quarter and delivered $119.58 billion in revenue with EPS coming in at $2.18. Analysts, meanwhile, were anticipating Apple to deliver quarterly revenue of $118.7 billion and EPS of $2.11. Incidentally, it’s worth noting that Apple’s EPS traditionally gets a nice quarterly boost from Apple’s ongoing stock buyback program. Profit-wise, Apple walked away with $33.9 billion in profit for the quarter.
It’s hard to evaluate Apple’s earnings report without comparing it to previous years. To that end, Apple during the same quarter a year-ago posted $117.2 billion in revenue and EPS of $1.88. And going back just one more year, Apple during the holiday quarter of 2022 posted revenue of $123.9 billion. So while this wasn’t a record-breaking quarter, investors will undoubtedly be happy to see a return to revenue growth.
iPhone and Mac sales
As always, Apple’s quarter was anchored by the iPhone. For the quarter gone by, the iPhone generated $69.7 billion in revenue. As a point of comparison, Apple during last year’s holiday quarter sold $65.5 billion worth of iPhones.
The Mac, meanwhile, generated $7.78 billion in revenue, compared to $7.7 billion during the same period last year. So while Mac revenue stayed somewhat steady year-over-year, iPhone revenue saw a solid increase. Notably, Apple doesn’t release iPhone sales figures, which is to say that the boost in iPhone-based revenue could largely be the result of consumers flocking to higher-end iPhone models as opposed to an increase in unit sales.
iPad, Wearables, and Services
During the quarter gone by, iPad sales generated $7.02 billion in revenue. Apple’s Wearables and Services divisions, meanwhile, generated $23.12 billion and $11.95 billion in revenue, respectively. Notably, iPad revenue fell by more than $2 billion. Apple also saw a nearly $2 billion revenue drop across its Wearables line. This, however, was essentially offset by a nearly $3 billion increase in Services-based revenue.
All told, the iPhone and Apple’s Services division did most of the heavy lifting this quarter. Notably, Apple’s wearables division took a downward turn despite the release of the Apple Watch Series 9, the Apple Watch Ultra 2, and brand new AirPods Pro.
“Today Apple is reporting revenue growth for the December quarter fueled by iPhone sales, and an all-time revenue record in Services, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a press release. “We are pleased to announce that our installed base of active devices has now surpassed 2.2 billion, reaching an all-time high across all products and geographic segments.”
The 2.2 billion in active devices is a data point worth highlighting.
Gene Munster astutely points out:
Apple said it will pay out a quarterly dividend of $0.24 per share on February 15 for all shareholders of record on February 12. Shares of Apple are currently down about 3 points in after-hours trading.
Developing…
