Wall Street analysts think the financial results Apple will announce Thursday will include record revenue for the quarter. They also expect year-over-year growth in iPhone revenue.
Their optimism helps explain the AAPL share price, which is high enough to make the Mac-maker the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.
Apple likely saw record September quarter revenue
Apple has been going through a bit of a rough patch. Of its past seven quarters, five experienced revenue declines when compared to the same quarter a year previously. But the company might have turned things around — revenue increased 5% in the June quarter. And analysts expect Apple did that again in the September quarter.
Wall Street analysts think Apple’s total quarterly revenue will come in at about $94 billion. If so, that’ll be another 5% annual increase. It’ll also set a record — the most the company’s ever taken in during any September quarter was $90.1 billion in 2022.
The iPhone 16 series launched at the very end of the quarter, so it’s too soon for Apple’s financial results to show how well the new model is selling. Still, analysts expect iPhone revenue to be up roughly 3% year over year.
Wall Street (and Apple itself) considers services like the App Store and Apple Music critical to the company’s future growth. And analysts’ predict revenue in this category to have increased 13%.
However, it’s quite possible Mac revenue dropped. Earlier this month, market analysts said Mac shipments fell 24% when compared to the September quarter of 2023. Apparently, buyers were waiting on the M4-powered Macs that launched this week, including the new MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac mini.
If the financial results Apple announces Thursday don’t meet analyst expectations, expect a drop in the APPL share price. Still, the stock is up 4% for the quarter and 22% for the year. And, as noted, Apple has mostly held the title of world’s most valuable publicly traded company since July. (Nvidia briefly occupied the top spot last week before ceding it to Apple once again.)
Looking ahead
Any financial quarter is important, of course, but the current quarter includes the holiday shopping season, so it’s always Apple’s biggest. And it’ll be a better indicator of demand for the iPhone 16 series, especially now that iOS 18.1 has brought the AI-powered Apple Intelligence features to the latest handsets (at least in the United States). Plus, the December quarter will include sales of the new M4-powered Macs.
Apple won’t reveal the results of the current quarter until the end of January. But you can expect the company to make a broad prediction about how well it expects to do this holiday season during its regularly scheduled call with investors this afternoon. (If you plan to listen in, you should brush up on your financial lingo ahead of the Apple earnings call.)
