Apple’s financial results from the December 2022 quarter include revenue and earnings per share that declined compared to the same period of the previous year. The figures did not live up to analysts’ expectations, which is dropping the share price.
Still, CEO Tim Cook stayed positive: “As we all continue to navigate a challenging environment, we are proud to have our best lineup of products and services ever, and as always, we remain focused on the long term and are leading with our values in everything we do.”
Apple earnings clobber AAPL share price
Everyone knew going in that Apple wasn’t going to announce record revenue in the December-quarter financial results. There were too many problems.
Most notably, a COVID-19 lockdown at the iPhone assembly plant in China forced the company to warn customers and investors that it was unable to keep up with demand for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models.
Also, for the first time in over 20 years, Apple did not release new Macs between October and December.
The final result was quarterly revenue of $117.2 billion, down 5% year over year. Analysts had expected $121 billion, itself a 2% annual drop. Apple’s earnings per diluted share for the December quarter were $1.88, while analysts predicted $1.94.
These figures were announced after Wall Street had closed, but at the time of this writing AAPL shares had declined almost 4% in after-hours trading.
Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO, also looked for the silver lining in the results.
“We set an all-time revenue record of $20.8 billion in our Services business, and in spite of a difficult macroeconomic environment and significant supply constraints, we grew total company revenue on a constant currency basis,” said Maestri via press release.
And Apple has a very big, positive milestone to announce. Its installed base surpassed 2 billion active devices.
“During the December quarter, we achieved a major milestone and are excited to report that we now have more than 2 billion active devices as part of our growing installed base,” said Tim Cook..
