Apple Reports 4Q 2024 Results: $14.7B Profit on $94.9B Revenue

[Realityck]

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/31/apple-aapl-q4-earnings-report-2024.html

KEY POINTS

• Apple’s fiscal fourth-quarter results beat Wall Street expectations for revenue and earnings per share but net income slumped after the company paid a one-time charge as part of a tax decision in Europe.
• iPhone sales and overall sales both rose by 6%.
• Sales of the iPhone 15 were “stronger than 14 in the year-ago quarter, and 16 was stronger than 15,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC’s Steve Kovach.

Overall iPhone revenue grew 6% in the first sign of how the iPhone 16 is fairing in the market. Apple’s newest devices came out on Sept. 20, giving Apple about a week of new product sales in the quarter. It’s still Apple’s most important product, accounting for nearly 49% of the company’s overall sales.

Sales of the iPhone 15 were “stronger than 14 in the year-ago quarter, and 16 was stronger than 15,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC’s Steve Kovach.

Cook said that the company was looking forward to Apple Intelligence, the AI system for iPhones and Macs that started to roll out this week as part of the iOS 18.1 update.

“We’re getting great feedback from customers and developers already and a really early stat, which is only three days worth of data: Users are adopting iOS 18.1 at twice the rate that they adopted 17.1 in the year ago quarter,” Cook said.

Apple’s iPad business had the strongest growth of any of Apple’s hardware lines with an 8% increase in sales to $6.95 billion. Part of the sales were from pent-up demand. Apple released new iPad Pro and Air models in May after going through all of 2023 without releasing new iPads.

Apple’s Mac business rose 2% on an annual basis to report $7.74 billion in revenue during the quarter, which includes back-to-school laptop sales. Cook told CNBC that the growth was driven by sales of the company’s MacBook Air, which was updated with new chips in the spring.

Apple’s services business -- which includes online subscriptions such as iCloud, Google search revenue, and AppleCare warranties for Apple hardware -- remains a juggernaut and grew 12% on an annual basis to nearly $25 billion in sales. However, Apple’s services revenue came in under LSEG consensus expectations.

The company reports its AirPods headphones, Homepod speakers and Apple Watch sales in a category it calls Other Products or wearables. That unit’s revenue came in light versus forecasts at $9.04 billion, which was down 3% year over year. The company released new Apple Watch and AirPods models during the quarter alongside the new iPhones.

Apple’s results in China are closely watched by investors as it is the company’s third-largest region after the Americas and Europe. Apple also faces renewed competition from local Chinese handset makers like Huawei. Apple’s revenue in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong was down slightly year over year at $15.03 billion.

Apple said that it had spent $29 billion on share repurchases and dividends during the quarter.

 

[CraigsDog]

Stock sold off in after hours trading.

It's down a whole 0.40% right now after hours. What a sell off!

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Booya Apple!

Supercycle this year? Well - Yes!

All time record Q again? Yes!

Stock guys on TV always try to be negative on AAPL? Seems like it eh?


pass the grey poupon!

If you’re referring to the iPhone 16 as a super cycle upgrade, it’s barely on this report at all..just a few days worth.

The next quarterly report will tell the iPhone sales story.

 

[noupf]

Booya Apple!

Supercycle this year? Well - Yes!

All time record Q again? Yes!

Stock guys on TV always try to be negative on AAPL? Seems like it eh?


pass the grey poupon!

Been holding most of my shares for over 17 years now. Same ole same ole when it comes to the market analysts trying to knock Apple down, quarter after quarter. Steady as she goes. Good quarter on almost all metrics. If they can do a good job with AI on the phones, it will lead to a multi year increase in iphones sales as predicted. Can they do it though, that is the question....... and will consumers want it....

 

[LeeW]

Office still keeping Microsoft afloat, and I haven't used it since 1996.

Cloud is Microsoft's biggest earner, not Office, although it's still doing well.

 

[Michael Scrip]

iPhone STILL keeping the business afloat

Wait... doesn't afloat mean they would be in danger of going under? Teetering on the abyss?

What does it mean to be afloat?

If a person, business, or country stays afloat or is kept afloat, they have just enough money to pay their debts and continue operating.

Sorry... I don't think Apple's $95 billion in revenue and $15 billion in profit in 3 months is them barely hanging on...

 

[ticzon]

I will just continue to hold on to the stock (since 1998, during the return of Jobs at $13/share). After all these years, AAPL can have a good quarter, and the stock goes down. Never panic. Also said, "It is casino money. Not part of my retirement." Rather than buying a new computer in 1998, I bought AAPL stock instead. Best move I ever made. I'm still ahead.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

And now the stock price is down.

It's normal... some coward investors start selling because they are afraid of what could happen overnight, and that brings the stock price down.
The smarty ones are buying it and going to make some good money.

 

[falainber]

It's down a whole 0.40% right now after hours. What a sell off!

And it's down 2% now. Did they say something bad at the conference call?

 

[Abazigal]

Agreed, I don't like where that is going. It's going to push Apple to continue pushing service revenue and design hardware that expects it.

Counterpoint - services revenue is what is keeping hardware prices manageable, because Apple knows they can continue monetising the customer after the initial hardware sale. Without it, Apple may not be so willing to support their devices for as long as they do, and prices may well be higher.

I think it's pretty amazing how well-oiled the entire ecosystem is, and how well Apple has transitioned from simply selling iPhones, to selling to people with iPhones (to counteract longer upgrade cycles).

 

[Chuckeee]

Stock sold off in after hours trading.

View attachment 2445058

And now the stock price is down.

It's down a whole 0.40% right now after hours. What a sell off!

And it's down 2% now. Did they say something bad at the conference call?

This is typical from any major company after a earnings call that does not have surprising unexpected good news. It just follow the general adage: Up on rumor, Down on news.

 

[God of Biscuits]

not sure what you mean by this comment?

It means they're going to get bloated and lazy and stop caring about usability and turn into Microsoft.

 

[kagharaht]

All these years I keep hoping Mac sales would tick up enhanced by iPhone sales. Not happening it seems.

 

[nicolas_s]

Only 15B profit for a 95B revenue? But everyone on the internet say that iPhones cost 10% of the price to make and the rest is profit, so profits should be something like 85B, no?

 

[QuarterSwede]

So 6.7% margin overall. Not nearly as good as I expected.

 

[picpicmac]

Expecting Mac sales to improve now that all Macs start with 16GB memory minimum

Yeah... right...

 

[picpicmac]

Mac sales consistently stay flat over all these years. Maybe don’t try to gouge people on commodity upgrades like memory & storage? That might get some new customers from the Wintel camp into the fold…

AS IF Wintel sales are also not falling?

Dudes, get a grip. Better yet, go price a new laptop from Lenovo or the other two big computer makers.

There are only four brands that now make up most of the small computer market: Lenovo, Dell, HP (fka Compaq), and Apple. They all have roughly equal share globally for laptops and desktops.

The desktop computer market is no longer a growth market. It has not been for many years now.

Apple has use of a computer line because the Mac is still the development environment for iOS and WatchOS (and eventually HomeOS, etc.)

 

[joeblow7777]

Expecting Mac sales to improve now that all Macs start with 16GB memory minimum

I really don't expect that to matter as much as you might think. Most people don't even know how much RAM their current computer has, nor can they even tell you what RAM does. People who were going to buy a Mac weren't changing their mind because of the entry level RAM, and people who weren't going to buy a Mac before aren't suddenly going to be won over now.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Only 15B profit for a 95B revenue? But everyone on the internet say that iPhones cost 10% of the price to make and the rest is profit, so profits should be something like 85B, no?

You're on the correct track, but the article has that Apple had to pay the EU a $10 billion fine. That makes Apple's profits really more like $25 billion. That's still only about 26% net margin overall.

 

[ZipZilla]

I looked it up: Mac revenue in Q4 of 2019 was 6.991 Billion. 2% growth a year since then? Was the switch to ARM a good move?

 

[aloyouis]

• EPS: $1.64, adjusted, versus $1.60 estimate
• Revenue: $94.93 billion vs. $94.58 billion estimate
• iPhone revenue: $46.22 billion vs. $45.47 billion estimate
• Mac revenue: $7.74 billion vs. $7.82 billion estimate
• iPad revenue: $6.95 billion vs. $7.09 billion estimate
• Wearables, Home and Accessories revenue: $9.04 billion vs. $9.21 billion estimate
• Services revenue: $24.97 billion vs. $25.28 billion estimate
• Gross margin: 46.2% vs. 46.0% estimate

Expecting Mac sales to improve now that all Macs start with 16GB memory minimum


Sales up in every region for the quarter and the full fiscal year except for China

View attachment 2445065

They absolutely KILLED they quarter.

The haters on here will do Samsung's direction but the quarter was a huge hit.

YES. I am an APPLE shareholder.

 

[progx]

Expecting Mac sales to improve now that all Macs start with 16GB memory minimum

Not really. I doubt 16GB of unified memory are holding back the flood gates on Mac sales. I think Mac sales will still hover between 8-9%. Whenever the next big thing happens to Mac, it might improve it. Possibly a bigger screen iMac might help with the bump.

 

[progx]

3/4 of the profit coming from what they make on storage and ram upgrades on the iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Uhh... you can't upgrade the RAM on iPhones and iPads there chief. They still make a lot of profit on the lowest spec iPhones and iPads, which outsell the bigger storage sizes.

 

[spicynujac]

Except for me, I'm seriously considering a MacBook Air as my next laptop due to the increased RAM, the things I hear about the M chips being so GOOD and because I'm tired of Windows laptops claiming 13+ hours of battery life when in real life, the battery life is more like 5-6 hours.

I'm a Windows desktop at home guy, but Macbook on the road guy.
The 15" MacBook Air is the best computer I've ever owned. Battery life is amazing--sometimes I take it on long weekends and work every day and it never needs charging until I'm back home. And the M4 version should have even BETTER battery life. Go for it!

 

[svish]

Another good quarter for Apple. Good to hear that more stores are opening in India soon.