Apple posts strong earnings despite drop in iPhone sales

Despite a year-over-year fall in iPhone sales, earnings were above analysts' estimates, with revenue climbing by 4.9% to $85.78 billion

Written by: Olumide Adesina • Friday, August 2, 2024 • 2 min read

• Last updated: Friday, August 2, 2024

Apple released results that were higher than anticipated in its third quarter of 2024, with excitement surrounding its new AI features counterbalancing a persistent downturn in its important China market.

Despite a year-over-year fall in iPhone sales, earnings were above analysts’ estimates, with revenue climbing by 4.9% to $85.78 billion in the three months ending June 29. This exceeded the average analyst forecast of $84.53 billion. The business kept the cash dividend per share at twenty-five cents.

China’s sales fell 6.5% to $14.73 billion in the third quarter of earnings results, a sharper decrease than the 2.4% decline that analysts had projected.

The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, addressed these worries in a conference call with investors, blaming part of the decline on volatile currency rates. Cook stated that the decrease was less than 3% when considering constant currency, and iPad sales have started to increase again in that area.

Overall iPhone sales were better than anticipated despite weak sales in China, , declining 0.9% to $39.30 billion, less than the 2.2% reduction predicted by analysts. The increased demand for Apple’s upcoming artificial intelligence features—which the company revealed at its annual developer conference, WWDC, in June—is partially to blame for this improvement.

After weak earnings from other major titans like Amazon, Snap, and Intel, Apple’s impressive result was a bright spot in the tech industry.

Tech stocks on Thursday posted high sell-offs due to unsatisfactory results, including one from Intel, which declared that it would be laying off over 15,000 employees to save billions of dollars in expenses and turn around the company.

Additionally, Amazon’s shares fell more than 4% on Thursday following the company’s announcement of lower-than-expected sales for this quarter and statements signaling a sustained downturn in the upcoming quarter.

Updates on Apple’s sales in China, its third-largest market, where its market share has been declining, were eagerly awaited by investors. Apple was surpassed by local brands like Vivo, OPPO, and Huawei earlier this year, and the company was removed from the top five smartphone providers in the nation for the first time.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR See More

Olumide Adesina

Financial Market Writer

Olumide Adesina is a French-born Nigerian financial writer. He tracks the financial markets with over 15 years of working experience in investment trading.