Shares of
Apple
shot higher Friday after the company’s latest quarterly results came in better than analysts expected.
For the fiscal second quarter, Apple (ticker: AAPL) reported earnings of $1.52 a share, on revenue of $94.8 billion.
Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of $1.43 a share, with sales of $92.9 billion.
The stock was up 4.3% Friday, the morning after the release of the earnings report. Shares are on pace for their largest percentage increase since November when it rose 4.9%, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Most of the revenue beat was driven by stronger than expected sales for in the company’s iPhone unit, which generated revenue of $51.33 billion in the quarter, up 1.5% from a year ago. Wall Street expected quarterly iPhone sales of $48.66 billion.
Services revenue of $20.91 billion was a touch below estimates of $20.96 billion. Mac revenue of $7.17 billion was below estimates at $7.78 billion. iPad revenue of $6.67 billion was in line with expectations. Wearables, home and accessories revenue was $8.76 billion, ahead of expectations of $8.38 billion .
“We are pleased to report an all-time record in Services and a March quarter record for iPhone despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, and to have our installed base of active devices reach an all-time high,” CEO Tim Cook said in the earnings release. “We continue to invest for the long term and lead with our values, including making major progress toward building carbon neutral products and supply chains by 2030.”
The company said it would increase its dividend by 4% to 24 cents a share. It will be payable on May 18 to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 15. The board also authorized an additional share repurchase program buying back up to $90 billion in stock.
During the company’s earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said the company expects its June quarter revenue growth to be similar to its March performance, which saw revenue fall 3%.
Apple
joins its Big Tech peers reporting fairly positive reports. Reports from
Microsoft
(MSFT),
Alphabet
(GOOGL), and
Meta Platforms
(META) were mostly well received by Wall Street.
Amazon.com
‘s results topped estimates but a weak outlook around the cloud sent shares falling. Apple investors are hoping the firm follows in Microsoft’s footsteps, and not Amazon’s.
J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee, who rates Apple at Overweight with a $190 price target, wrote Wednesday that Wall Street will be paying attention to the firm’s commentary about the current quarter. The FactSet consensus call for the June quarter is for earnings of $1.21 a share and sales of $84.5 billion.
Shares of Apple are up 28% this year, and roughly flat over the last 12 months.
Write to Connor Smith at connor.smith@barrons.com
Read the full article here