Apple beats estimates as iPhone sales continue to drop

Apple beat analysts’ estimates thanks to the company’s rapidly growing services revenue, but the company’s 2024 fiscal year showed another drop in iPhone sales.

iPhone revenue dropped from $51.33 billion in the same quarter last year to $45.96 billion, a fall of about 10 percent. This was the second consecutive quarter with declining iPhone revenues.

The Apple Services segment generated $23.87 billion, up 14.2%, for the quarter ended March 30, topping analyst forecasts of $23.12 billion. For the June quarter, Apple expects to see double-digit growth in services similar to its rates in the two most recent quarters.

The services segment includes subscription services such as Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade and iCloud; the App Store, Apple Pay and Apple Card; advertising; and payments from Google for search.

“Today Apple is reporting revenue of $90.8 billion for the March quarter, including an all-time revenue record in Services,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

“During the quarter, we were thrilled to launch Apple Vision Pro and to show the world the potential that spatial computing unlocks. We’re also looking forward to an exciting product announcement next week and an incredible Worldwide Developers Conference next month. As always, we are focused on providing the very best products and services for our customers, and doing so while living up to the core values that drive us.”

Overall, Apple came in just above analyst estimates. The company reported $90.8 billion in revenue, down 4.3%, and net income of $23.6 billion ($1.53 per share), a decline of 2.2%, for the March 2024 quarter. Wall Street expected the company to post revenue of $90.04 billion and earnings per share of $1.50 for the period.

Sales in Greater China, Apple’s third largest region, were off 8% to $17.8 billion in revenue, which was significantly better than the $15.25 billion in sales expected, potentially quelling investor worries that Apple may have been losing market share to local competitors such as Huawei.

Thanks to very high levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, our active installed base of devices has reached a new all-time high across all products and all geographic segments, and our business performance drove a new EPS record for the March quarter,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO.

“Given our confidence in Apple’s future and the value we see in our stock, our Board has authorized an additional $110 billion for share repurchases. We are also raising our quarterly dividend for the twelfth year in a row.

Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.25 per share of the Company’s common stock, an increase of 4 percent. The dividend is payable on May 16, 2024 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 13, 2024.

The board of directors has also authorized an additional program to repurchase up to $110 billion of the Company’s common stock.