Apple’s stock is tanking in after-hours trading, despite the company’s announcement of yet another record-breaking quarter. The problem? Wall Street expected it to make way more.
Apple shares tumbled 5% Thursday after the company failed to beat Wall Street earnings expectations. It’s the first time Apple’s missed analyst projections since 2016.
This despite the company making — yet again — boatloads of money. The company reported record revenue of $83.4 billion, up 29% from a year ago but below analysts’ consensus of $84.85 billion, according to Yahoo Finance.
Overall, revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter was up a not-too-shabby 29% on an annual basis. Apple saw year-over-year growth in all product categories, but especially iPhone revenue, which was up a whopping 47% year-over-year. Still, even this fell short of analyst projections.
Apple blamed the shortfall on supply chain issues. CEO Tim Cook said supply shortages cost the company $6 billion.
“We had a very strong performance despite larger-than-expected supply constraints, which we estimate to be around $6 billion,” Cook told CNBC. “The supply constraints were driven by the industry-wide chip shortages that have been talked about a lot, and COVID-related manufacturing disruptions in Southeast Asia.”
For the next quarter, Cook said Apple expects “solid year-over-year revenue growth,” even though the company will face even greater supply constraints.
Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri reiterated Cook’s point on a conference call with analysts Thursday. Maestri said Apple expects supply-chain problems will have an even larger financial impact in the coming quarter, but that Apple still expects “very solid year-over-year revenue growth.”
“Demand is very robust,” Cook said on the same call.
Apple until now seemed immune to supply constraints. Press reports said key suppliers, like its Taiwanese chip partner TSMC, prioritized Apple, softening the blow of any shortages.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
