Apple Q2 results: iPhone sales growth helps beat revenue, profit estimates

Apple reported a 3% revenue fall at $94.84 billion for the second quarter of its financial year 2023 compared with $97.28 billion in the year-ago period dragged down by a slump in Mac and iPad sales.

Despite the fall in revenue, the figures beat the Street estimates of $92.96 billion as per data from the market intelligence platform Refinitiv.

Apple follows an October to September financial year.


A 1.5% rise in Apple's iPhone revenue to $51.33 billion from $50.57 billion showed a contrasting picture compared with the broader consumer electronics industry, which is grappling with a decline in sales of smartphones, tablets and PCs as consumers and businesses — who scooped up electronics during the pandemic — tighten spending amid rising interest rates and economic uncertainty.

“We are pleased to report an all-time record in services and a March quarter record for iPhone despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, and to have our installed base of active devices reach an all-time high,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive officer in an earnings release.

Here are the key takeaways from Apple’s earnings

Financial highlights

Apple’s profit for the quarter under review fell marginally to $1.53 per share from $1.54 per share in the year-ago period beating the Street estimates of a 5.7% fall to $1.47 per share.

The company announced $90 billion in additional share buybacks, roughly in line with what was forecasted in the year-ago period.

The tech giant’s net sales from the Americas and China for the quarter dropped to $37.78 billion and $17.81 billion, respectively. The latter was primarily due to the sluggish recovery from Covid-19 and a number of strikes in Apple’s manufacturing unit in China.

However, sales from the Rest of Asia Pacific — which also involves India — grew to $8.12 billion mainly on account of a surge in iPhone sales in the region.

While the firm did not give revenue guidance for the ongoing quarter, Apple’s chief financial officer Luca Maestri said the company expects overall revenue to decline about 3%.

“We expect our June quarter year-over-year revenue performance to be similar to the March quarter assuming that the macroeconomic outlook does not worsen from what we are projecting today for the current quarter,” Maestri said on a call with analysts, according to CNBC.

The hits & the misses

Apple’s growth in iPhone sales and services revenue stood out during the tech giant’s second-quarter results.

While iPhone sales rose 1.5% compared with analyst expectations of a 3.3% decline to $48.9 billion, according to Refinitiv, its services business, which includes products like iCloud and Apple Pay, grew 5.5% to $20.9 billion, in line with analyst expectations.

But, sales in Mac and wearables were a laggard during the quarter.

Mac sales fell more than 30% to $7.17 billion compared with analyst estimates of a 25% decline to $7.8 billion, according to Refinitiv. Sales in Apple’s wearables business, which includes devices like AirPods and the Apple Watch, fell less than 1% to $8.76 billion, compared with estimates of a 4.4% drop to $8.4 billion.

Sales of iPads, too, fell $6.67 billion from $7.65 billion in the year-ago period.

Shares of Apple were down about 1% at $165.79 a piece after the results were announced.

(With inputs from agencies)