Apple has suffered a drop in sales for the second consecutive year. But the electronics group exceeded expectations with its quarterly results presented on Thursday after the market closed. And with the iPhone, by far his most important product, he surprisingly returned to growth.
The stock market reacted positively to the numbers, the share price rose slightly in after-hours trading. Apple stock has gained about a third in value since the beginning of the year.
Overall, Apple reported a 3 percent drop in sales to $94.8 billion for the past fiscal quarter. That was an improvement from the previous quarter, when it was down 5 percent. Analysts had expected an average of just under $ 93 billion. Net income also fell 3 percent to $24.2 billion. Earnings per share of $1.52 were 9 cents better than expected.
Services business particularly strong
iPhone sales rose nearly 2 percent to $51.3 billion. In the previous quarter there had been a decline of 8 percent, when Apple felt production interruptions in China. Many analysts had expected another minus.
Development in the rest of the range was very mixed. The service business performed best, which is now the second largest division after the iPhone, which includes the App Store, the Apple Pay payment service and the Apple TV+ streaming platform. Here sales increased by 5 percent to 20.9 billion dollars.
Sales fell in all other divisions. The Macintosh computer business was the worst, with sales plummeting 31 percent to $7.2 billion. The iPad was down 13 percent to $6.7 billion, while sales in the division with products such as the Apple Watch digital clock and Airpod headphones fell by one percent to $8.8 billion.
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