Apple exceeded Wall Street expectations with its fourth-quarter earnings. The tech giant surpassed Wall Street predictions for revenue and overall earnings per share, but its income took a hit after paying a one-time charge for a tax decision in Europe. In light of these results, Apple shares slid by 2% in extended on Thursday.
The earnings report highlighted a 6% rise in iPhone-linked revenue, indicating a positive response to Apple’s recent smartphone launches. Apple’s “Glowtime” product sales also managed to feature in its Q4 report for 2024. The iPhone continues to dominate overall sales for the tech company, accounting for nearly 50% of overall sales. Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC’s Steve Kovach, “Sales of the iPhone 15 were stronger than 14 in the year-ago quarter, and 16 was stronger than 15.”
Apple recorded $94.93 billion in revenue, which trumped the London Stock Exchange’s (LSEG) prediction of $94.58 billion.
Thursday’s earnings call prepared analysts to expect “low to mid-single digit” sales growth for the December quarter. Apple also expects to see service-led growth of 12.87%, mirroring 2023 figures from the same period. The smartphone company also hopes to see revenue come in from Apple Intelligence, expected to roll out for iPhones and Macs as part of the iOS 18.1 update. CEO Tim Cook confirmed that “Apple is getting great feedback from customers and developers already and a really early stat, which is only three days worth of data: Users are adopting iOS 18.1 at twice the rate that they adopted 17.1 in the year-ago quarter.”
To bolster Apple’s sales, iPad sales showed the strongest growth of any hardware line, with an 8% increase in sales to $6.95 billion, according to CNBC. Apple’s Mac saw a 2% rise in sales in Q4, driven by back-to-school laptop sales. Online subscriptions such as iCloud, Google search revenue, and AppleCare warranties for Apple hardware recorded a 12% annual growth with almost $25 billion in sales.
