Don’t expect record-breaking profits when Apple reveals its financial results from the first three months of 2023. Quite the opposite. Analysts are predicting that the company’s revenue and profits will be down when compared to the same quarter of 2022.
If true, this will be the second quarter in a row in which global problems cut into Apple’s bottom line.
Apple expected to announce weak quarterly results
Historical data shows the March quarter is a relatively strong one for Apple. It was the company’s second best quarter of the year in both 2022 and 2021 for bringing in revenue — the holiday quarter is always the top.
But macroeconomic conditions apparently cast a pall over the beginning of 2023. Analysts predict the iPhone-makers quarterly earnings per diluted share to be $1.43, down 6% from $1.52 year over year. And total company revenue is expected to be $93 billion, an annual drop of 4.1% from $97 billion.
New MacBooks but no surge in sales
Apple took the unusual step of launching new Macs at the start of this year. The 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini were all refreshed with M2, M2 Pro or M2 Max processors. These could have brought a surge in sales and a boost to Apple’s financial results, but not according to market watchers. IDC says Mac shipments actually dropped 41% year over year in the March quarter.
But analysts aren’t blaming the slowdown on Apple products. They point to many of the same causes that cut revenue for the December quarter by 5% year over year.
CEO Tom Cook laid these out in February: “a challenging macroeconomic environment as the world continues to face unprecedented circumstances, from inflation to war in Eastern Europe, to the enduring impacts of the pandemic.”
All that said, Apple quarterly results have outperformed analyst’s expectations many times before. It occurred as recently as the September 2022 quarter. And it could happen again.
Check Cult of Mac on Thursday afternoon for the official reveal of Apple March-quarter financial results, and details from the conference call Tim Cook will hold with investors afterward.
