Apple took a more than $40 billion hit today after reporting its second-quarter earnings — and it was bleak. Shares of Apple were down more than 8 percent in after-hours trading at one point today.
Things went about as poorly as you could expect: the company couldn’t hit revenue or earnings targets, iPhone sales fell off a cliff from the year-ago quarter, and its third-quarter guidance was pretty tepid. In short, it was not a good quarter for Apple, which blamed comparisons to a strong year-ago quarter and macroeconomic problems.
First, the scorecard:
Revenue: $50.6 billion, compared to $58 billion a year ago and $52 billion that analysts were expecting
Earnings: $1.90 per share, compared to analyst estimates of $2
Guidance: Between $41 billion and $43 billion, compared to $49.6 billion in the same quarter a year ago and analyst estimates of $47.4 billion
iPhone sales: 51.2 million, compared to analyst estimates of 50.7 million and down from 61.2 million in Q2 a year ago
iPad sales: 10.3 million units, compared to analyst estimates of 9.4 million units and down from 12.6 million iPads in Q2 a year ago.
Mac sales: 4 million units, compared to 4.4 million analyst expectations and 4.6 million in the same quarter a year ago
Greater China (historically a strong growth area): $12.5 billion in revenue, compared to $16.8 billion in Q2 a year ago
Revenue: $50.6 billion, compared to $58 billion a year ago and $52 billion that analysts were expecting
Earnings: $1.90 per share, compared to analyst estimates of $2
Guidance: Between $41 billion and $43 billion, compared to $49.6 billion in the same quarter a year ago and analyst estimates of $47.4 billion
iPhone sales: 51.2 million, compared to analyst estimates of 50.7 million and down from 61.2 million in Q2 a year ago
iPad sales: 10.3 million units, compared to analyst estimates of 9.4 million units and down from 12.6 million iPads in Q2 a year ago.
Mac sales: 4 million units, compared to 4.4 million analyst expectations and 4.6 million in the same quarter a year ago
Greater China (historically a strong growth area): $12.5 billion in revenue, compared to $16.8 billion in Q2 a year ago
There are a couple of bright spots against analyst expectations, but the miss on revenue and the very weak guidance really hit Apple very, very hard. So hard that its 8 percent drop in a single day is nearly unprecedented for the company — which has seen its shares decline 20 percent in the past year, but not really seen swings that dramatic. By Apple standards, they can sometimes be dramatic, but this was one for the books.
Here’s the rub. Investors tend to reward a couple of things: profitability is good, meeting expectations is good, beating them is even better. But for larger companies like Apple, Twitter, Facebook and Alphabet, growth is an absolutely massive part of the equation. And Apple today showed that not only did its sales fall year-on-year for the first time in 13 years, its next quarter is also looking equally bleak.
