Apple reports fourth-quarter results as tech earnings season disappoints investors
Apple reports its fiscal fourth-quarter results after the closing bell, the first quarter led in part by new CEO John Ternus, as investors weigh a rough earnings season across Big Tech.
Apple is set to report its fiscal fourth-quarter results after the closing bell, a release that arrives at a difficult moment for technology stocks. Investors have reacted poorly to the latest earnings from major tech companies, and Apple now has a chance to reassure them with a strong outlook for the holiday season.
The quarter, which ended September 30, also closes out Apple's fiscal year and is the first in which new chief executive John Ternus ran the company, at least in part. Ternus replaced longtime CEO Tim Cook at the beginning of September. Historically the fourth quarter is Apple's most important for product launches, since the company traditionally releases new iPhones in the weeks before the quarter ends. This year the rollout was different. Apple announced only the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max during the quarter, and it is holding the updated iPhone 18 and iPhone Air 2 until the third quarter of next year.
That staggered schedule is central to what analysts want to hear. Investors will watch for comments from Ternus or chief financial officer Kevan Parekh on how the new release pattern affected iPhone sales compared with last year. The company also unveiled its first foldable device, the iPhone Duo, during the quarter, but it did not go on sale until October, after the period closed, so it contributed nothing to fourth-quarter revenue. Because the foldable represents Apple's most radical iPhone redesign to date, investors will also look for early signals about how sales are going.
The broader market backdrop is shaping expectations. Several large technology companies have seen their stock prices fall after reporting results, driven in part by negative free cash flow tied to heavy capital spending on artificial intelligence data centers. Google and Amazon have been among the companies most affected by that concern. Apple has taken a more restrained approach to AI infrastructure spending, a strategy that has made it a relative safe haven for investors. Its AI-related costs are still rising, however, mainly through higher memory prices, and analysts will want to know how those component costs could affect the company going forward.
Perhaps the most closely watched figure will be Apple's guidance for the current first quarter, which covers the holiday season and is typically the company's biggest of the year. Strong guidance could lift investor confidence and push the stock higher in after-hours trading, while weaker guidance could have the opposite effect.
Wall Street's consensus estimates, compiled by Bloomberg and reported through Yahoo Finance, call for total revenue of $113.46 billion and earnings of $2.00 per share for the quarter. Analysts expect iPhone revenue of $56.48 billion, services revenue of $31.58 billion, Mac revenue of $9.69 billion, wearables revenue of $8.99 billion and iPad revenue of $6.83 billion. For comparison, Apple reported $102.46 billion in total revenue and earnings of $1.85 per share for the same quarter a year earlier.
Apple's stock has been the strongest performer among the Magnificent 7 this year. Shares were up nearly 27 percent as of Friday's close, compared with less than 10 percent for Nvidia, 8 percent for Microsoft and just over 4 percent for Amazon. Alphabet, Meta and Tesla were all trading below their starting levels for the year. Apple recently became the most valuable company in the world, overtaking Nvidia and becoming only the second company ever to close with a market capitalization above $5 trillion. The company's financial call is scheduled for 2 p.m. Pacific time, or 5 p.m. Eastern.
Source: fastcompany.com
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