Apple late Thursday beat Wall Street's earnings target for its fiscal first quarter while matching views on sales. Apple stock rose in extended trading.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based consumer electronics giant earned $2.40 a share on sales of $124.3 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 28. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected Apple earnings of $2.35 a share on sales of $124.3 billion. On a year-over-year basis, Apple earnings rose 10% while sales increased 4%.
Apple's iPhone sales declined nearly 1% to $69.14 billion in the December quarter. Smartphones accounted for 55.6% of Apple's total revenue in the quarter.
On a conference call with analysts, Chief Executive Tim Cook said iPhone 16 units sold better in markets where Apple Intelligence features were available. But many of those features didn't launch until later in the quarter. They also were limited to English-speaking markets. Apple plans to add support for more languages in April.
Services were a bright spot, reaching an all-time high in the holiday quarter. Revenue from services increased 13.9% to $26.34 billion in the period. Services made up 21.2% of Apple's total revenue.
Mac computer sales advanced 15.5% to $8.99 billion. IPad tablet sales rose 15.2% to $8.09 billion. And Apple's Wearables, Home and Accessories unit reported a 1.7% drop in revenue to $11.75 billion.
"Our record revenue and strong operating margins drove EPS to a new all-time record with double-digit growth and allowed us to return over $30 billion to shareholders," Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh said in a news release. "We are also pleased that our installed base of active devices has reached a new all-time high across all products and geographic segments."
Apple Stock Is On Tech Leaders List
In after-hours trading on the stock market today, Apple stock rose more than 3% to 245.60. During the regular-session Thursday, Apple stock slid 0.7% to close at 237.59.
Apple's sales in China fell 11.1% to $18.51 billion in fiscal Q1. Over half of the decline was driven by a change in channel inventory in the market, Cook said.
For the current quarter, Apple forecast its total revenue to grow in the low to mid single digits. It sees foreign exchange headwinds negatively impacting its revenue growth by 2.5 percentage points.
Also, the company predicted a gross profit margin of 46.5% to 47.5% in fiscal Q2 vs. 46.9% in fiscal Q1, or roughly unchanged.
Apple stock is on the IBD Tech Leaders list.
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