Apple stock loses some sheen on disappointing iPhone sales

The iPhone maker reported $3.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.75 by $0.14.

While iPhone sales are at the heart of Apple’s money-making machine, the company has taken to spotlighting revenue from the App Store, iCloud, Apple Music, iTunes and other content and services people tap into using its devices.

The company announced earnings of $3.89 per share, up 15.7% year over year, beating expectations of $3.83, on revenue of $88.3 billion, up 12.6% from the previous year, higher than the expected $87.1 billion. Thrivent holds Apple shares. Finally, Schwab Charles Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Apple by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. The iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X sold well, but they didn’t set any records. But, thanks to higher iPhone average selling prices, revenue from iPhones surged to $61.6 billion, up 13 percent year-over-year and up 113 percent sequentially.

He later told journalists and analysts in an earnings call that the iPhone X was the “best-selling smartphone in the world in the December quarter” according to Canalys. That sharp increase in average iPhone prices is likely due to the iPhone X, Apple’s highest-end phone, with a starting price of US$999.

For the past year, investors pointed to Q1 2018 as a huge event for iPhone upgrades.

Even though Apple’s unit sales were down 1.3 per cent from a year earlier, it was able to move ahead of South Korea’s Samsung, whose 74.1 million devices sold gave it a market share of 18.4 percent, IDC said.

In an earnings conference call on Thursday, Maestri said Apple is looking to shrink its cash balance, which now stands at $285 billion or $163 billion excluding debt, down to nearly nothing.

Apple has overtaken Samsung to regain the global smartphone market lead in Q4 2017, said analyst firm IDC.

Apple sold an estimated 77.3 million iPhones in Q1 2018, which is just over 1 percent less than the 78.3 million iPhones Apple sold during the same quarter a year ago.

Following a monster fiscal Q4 2017, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) did not follow through with an equally impressive holiday quarter. The company is acknowledging that it’s being given the once-over by the U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission – this after both The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg had reported the Feds were on Apple’s case about the throttling of older models of the popular smartphones. While iPhone has always been the main growth driver for Apple in India, the company for the first time attributed the double digit sales growth in India also to Mac computers and iPad tablets driven by first time users. Smartphone sales overall have begun declining as the worldwide market has approach saturation, and high-end Android devices are increasingly rivaling Apple’s in terms of quality and reliability, Business Insider noted today. Apple’s best-selling product, the iPhone, has seen relatively flat unit sales over the same two-year period.

For the second quarter of fiscal year 2018, Apple forecasts revenue between $60 billion and $62 billion and a margin between 38 percent and 38.5 percent. Last year, the segment generated $30 billion in sales.

“We’re thrilled to report the biggest quarter in Apple’s history”, CEO Tim Cook stated.

Luca Maestri, Apple’s chief financial officer said cash flow from operations was very strong at $28.3bn, adding that the company returned $14.5bn to investors through its capital return program.