Apple quarterly revenue drops but results beat analysts expectations

Apple saw its revenue drop 4% year over year in the first quarter. The only real bright spot is that revenue and earnings dropped less than analysts had expected.

As a result, shares of AAPL are up over 6% in after-hours trading.

Apple Q1 2024 financial results were fairly dismal

Apple is undeniably going through a rough patch. Revenue dropped in four of its last five quarters — the holiday quarter of 2023 was the sole exception.

But at least the company did better in the most recent January-through-March period than analysts had predicted. They thought Apple’s Q1 quarterly results would include total revenue of $90.36 billion, down 5% from $94.84 billion in the same quarter of 2023. But instead, the iPhone maker brought in $90.8 billion.

Analysts also thought earnings per share would be $1.50 and net income would be $23.26 billion. Instead, they are $1.53 and $23.64 billion, respectively.

The differences may seem small, but they are enough to set off a rally in Apple stock. It closed  up 2.2% on Thursday and is current up another 6.3% in after-hours trading. It’s yet another an example of the curious logic of Wall Street.

Apple executives always stay optimistic about financial results.

“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 Chief Financial Officer.

Stay tuned

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Maestri will hold a conference call with investors on Thursday.  This will offer more details on these financial results, but expect analysts on the call to ask questions about Apple’s AI plans. Cook may drop hints about what to expect at WWDC24 in June.