Apple on Thursday posted its first quarterly revenue decline in nearly four years after pandemic-induced restrictions on factories in China dented sales of its latest iPhones during the holiday season.
The company’s revenue was $117 billion (approximately Rs 9,61,775) for the October-December period, representing a 5% year-on-year decline, a deeper downturn than analysts’ predictions.
It marks Apple Quarterly revenue fell year-on-year for the first time since January-March 2019 as sales also fell 5% amid slowing business activity Iphone demand and the fallout of the trade war with China waged by President Donald Trump.
Apple’s profits also eroded in the last quarter, though the Cupertino, California-based company remains a mainstay of prosperity. Total earnings came in at $30 billion (approximately Rs 2,46,609), or $1.88 per share (approximately Rs 150), down 13 times from the same time last year. Those results also miss the $1.94 a share (about Rs 160) target set by analysts polled by FactSet Research.
Investors responded to the drop by initially sending shares of Apple down nearly 5% in extended trading Thursday. But management’s remarks made on a conference call with analysts raised hopes that Apple’s disappointing performance may have been just a glitch, sending the company’s shares up. falls below 1%.
Apple’s rare fall comes amid more optimism about the tech industry’s prospects this year, helping to propel the industry’s Nasdaq composite up 17% year-to-date.
But for now, Wall Street looks set to reassess everything based on Apple’s latest results and continued concerns about a possible recession after interest rate hikes aimed at curbing inflation, analysts said. Investing.com analyst Jesse Cohen said.
With Google also revealing a quarterly drop in digital ad sales on Thursday coupled with Apple’s disappointing performance, Cohen said there are clearly “a number of challenges that the tech sector must face.” facing the current context of slowing economic growth and rising inflation”.
Despite the quarterly decline in business, Apple has no intention of mass layoffs – a stark contrast to its peers in the technology sector. industry giant Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Super platform announced plans to lay off more than 50,000 employees in total as it adjusts to slowing or declining revenue as people reduce their reliance on the digital sector once the pandemic has subsided.
Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts on a conference call: “We manage the long term. We invest in innovation and people.”
Cook was trying to brace investors for tougher skiing in late October as he warned of “increasingly difficult economic conditions” heading into the holiday season. Then, just a few days later, Apple warned that China’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID were affecting its production lines and would prevent it from meeting all demand for the product. high-class. iPhone 14″ model during the holidays.
That contributed to iPhone sales falling 8% year-over-year to $65.8 billion (approximately Rs 5,40,709) in the most recent quarter.
Cook said Apple’s supply headache is now over, assuring analysts that “production is now back where we want it to be.”
In another positive sign, Apple also revealed that for the first time ever, it has more than 2 billion iPhones, iPads, Macs and other devices in use. That could potentially help Apple sell more digital subscriptions and ads, helping drive revenue growth over the long term.
