Apple’s latest iPhones, including the excellent (but terribly named) iPhone 11 Pro Max, were released during the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, the results of which the company will be reporting later today (Oct. 30). But iPhone sales won’t necessarily be the number investors will be concerning themselves with.
The new iPhones were only on sale for a short time in the just-completed quarter, so will be far more important to next quarter’s numbers, the first of its fiscal year. Investors will be looking to see Apple’s guidance for the quarter, which includes the holidays when it traditionally sells more than any other period. Last year during its fourth quarter, the company missed its own sales guidance for the first time in over a decade, but still managed to post $84 billion in revenue. That’ll be the number investors are hoping Apple says it can beat for its holiday quarter, and will signal whether the new iPhones have helped curtail the downward revenue trend the product has seen recently.
Beyond services, there will be increased scrutiny over how the company’s other hardware businesses have fared, whether kids picked up new MacBooks and iPads during the back-to-school season, and whether the cultural phenomenon that AirPods have become continues to roll on.
MacDailyNews Take: As usual, Apple’s guidance is key.
We’ll have Apple’s fiscal Q419 results as soon as they are released, right around 4:30pm EDT and, following shortly thereafter, we’ll have live notes during Apple’s conference call with analysts starting at 5pm EDT. See you there!
Apple is still made of decreasing iPhone sales. That hasn’t changed as far as investors are concerned. Services and that other stuff is OK but just not enough to jack up Apple’s P/E. Apparently, Apple needs a cloud business where low-hanging fruit still exists. Microsoft won that $10B JEDI contract and those shareholders can relax as other major cloud contracts are sure to follow. Wall Street doesn’t have that much faith in Apple’s Services as TV shows can be hit or miss. Apple doesn’t yet have an unlimited growth anything as far as Wall Street is concerned. Apple shareholders are still going to have to sweat out iPhone sales and well, who knows how that’s going to turn out with December’s tariffs on the horizon.
I was hoping for Apple to hit $250 on earnings, but maybe only $248 is in the cards. Not terrible and not spectacular. I’ll be happy to get that $0.77 per share in dividends, so there’s no reason to be disappointed. I truly believe Apple is trying hard to gain revenue, so I consider that a good sign.