| | | And here is more detail on AAPL earnings just now:
Apple beats sales expectations on iPhone, services, China strength4:30pm ET, 07/27/2021 - Reuters
By Stephen Nellis
July 27 (Reuters) - Apple Inc on Tuesday reported quarterly sales and profits that beat analyst expectations as consumers bought premium versions of its 5G iPhones and signed up for the company's subscription services.
Driven by better-than-expected iPhone sales, total revenue hit $81.43 billion, which was above analyst expectations of $73.30 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Earnings were $1.30 per share, above estimates of $1.01 per share, according to Refinitiv.
Apple's strongest sales growth came from China, where Chief Executive Tim Cook told Reuters that customers are buying up accessories such as the Apple Watch to pair with their iPhones. China sales grew 58% to $14.76 billion in the fiscal third quarter ended June 26.
"It wasn't just iPhone. We set a new quarterly record for Mac, for wearables, home and accessories, and for services" in China, Cook told Reuters in an interview. "It was our strongest geography."
Apple also appears so far to have avoided major hit from a global chip shortage.
The results come as investors who once worried that Apple was too dependent on sales of its signature computing device, the iPhone, have pushed the company's value to nearly $2.5 trillion, more than doubling in about three years.
Instead of a risk, those investors have now come to see the iPhone as the consistent center of a constellation of related purchases in the Apple ecosystem, from watches and wireless earbuds to apps and paid services.
Apple launched its iPhone 12 models, all of which can connect to faster 5G wireless networks thanks to chips from Qualcomm Inc, later than usual last year. Because that delay pushed some iPhone purchases that would normally happen in the company's fiscal first quarter into the second, executives had warned investors to expect a steeper drop in iPhone sales than usual in the third quarter as consumers start holding back on purchases in anticipation of a new generation of phones this fall.
But impetus to upgrade for 5G appeared to be driving a better buying cycle for iPhones than many analysts expected. Apple said iPhone sales were $39.57 billion, up nearly 50% (WOW!!!!) from a year earlier and above analyst expectations of $34 billion.
Cook told Reuters that Apple's iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max, the premium tier of the device, were strong sellers. That helped pushed gross margins to 43.3%, above estimates of 41.9%, according to Refinitiv. |
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