Apple's 4th Straight Revenue Drop, Weak Q4 Earnings

Apple (AAPL-US) announced its fiscal year 2023 Q4 financial results after the market closed on Thursday. The company outperformed market expectations, yet reported a fourth consecutive quarter of declining revenue. This decline can be attributed to factors such as challenges in the Mac product line and a softening of the Chinese market. Furthermore, senior executives have expressed concerns about the likelihood of revenue growth for the current quarter, causing Apple's stock to briefly drop by 4% during after-hours trading.

It's worth noting that Apple continues its non-traditional approach of not providing specific financial forecasts, a practice it has maintained since February 2020. Luca Maestri, Apple's Chief Financial Officer, has indicated that the revenue for this quarter, ending in December, is expected to be on par with the same period last year. This implies that revenue growth may not return during the crucial year-end shopping season. Apple has also pointed out that this quarter is one week shorter than the previous year's.

Initial analyst expectations foresaw revenue for this quarter at approximately $122.98 billion, with a projected year-over-year increase of around 5%.

Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, highlighted the strong performance of the iPhone 15 during the first quarter, ending in September, in comparison to the iPhone 14 in the same period the previous year. He emphasized, "When we evaluate the performance of the iPhone 15 during this timeframe and compare it to the iPhone 14 from the same time last year, it's clear that the iPhone 15 is delivering superior results." This quarter's data encompasses roughly one week of sales following the iPhone 15's launch on September 22.

Cook also noted that the robust demand for the higher-priced Pro and Pro Max iPhone models has resulted in supply constraints.

Apple's stock exhibited an earlier gain of 2.07% on Thursday, closing at $177.57 per share. Year-to-date, the stock has appreciated by 37%. However, the release of the financial report caused the stock to dip by 4% during after-hours trading, with the decline still exceeding 3% at the time of this writing.