Apple Stock Slips as Quarterly Net Income Drops $1 Billion From 2019
We got a new iPhone weeks ago, and now we’ve got Apple’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 earnings. While Apple topped media analysts’ expectations for its fiscal Q4, company stock still slipped a few percentage points as iPhone sales declined 21% year to year.
Wall Street had forecast Apple earnings of 70 cents per share on $63.7 billion in revenue, according to consensus estimate compiled by Yahoo Finance. Apple actually reported earnings per share (EPS) of 73 cents on $64.7 billion in revenue.
Net income was $12.7 billion, down about $1 billion from Q4 2019. Mac and iPad sales helped offset some of those iPhones declines.
Last quarter, Apple posted EPS of $2.58 on revenues of $59.7 billion. At the time, both represented double-digit growth (on a percentage basis) from the comparable 2019 quarter.
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“Apple capped off a fiscal year defined by innovation in the face of adversity with a September quarter record, led by all-time records for Mac and Services,” Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said in a statement Thursday accompanying the financials. “Despite the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, Apple is in the midst of our most prolific product introduction period ever, and the early response to all our new products, led by our first 5G-enabled iPhone lineup, has been tremendously positive. From remote learning to the home office, Apple products have been a window to the world for users as the pandemic continues, and our teams have met the needs of this moment with creativity, passion, and the kinds of big ideas that only Apple can deliver.”
“Our outstanding September quarter performance concludes a remarkable fiscal year, where we established new all-time records for revenue, earnings per share, and free cash flow, in spite of an extremely volatile and challenging macro environment,” added Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “Our sales results and the unmatched loyalty of our customers drove our active installed base of devices to an all-time high in all of our major product categories. We also returned nearly $22 billion to shareholders during the quarter, as we maintain our target of reaching a net cash neutral position over time.”
Apple stock (AAPL) closed Thursday afternoon’s regular trading day at $115.32 per share. At the time of this writing, the stock had dipped below $110 per share in after-hours trading.
The U.S. stock markets will reopen for their regular trading day tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. ET.
On Wednesday, Apple TV+ handed an early Season 3 renewal to its No. 1 comedy, “Ted Lasso.” Season 2 has yet to begin production.
Executives will hold a conference call at 5 p.m. ET to discuss the quarter and full year in greater detail.
