During quarterly earnings calls, many executives deploy language designed to puff up, excuse or obfuscate their companies’ recent performance. The goal is to make investors pant with delight over implied future success. And ultimately to give the company more money. Always. More. Money.
But when you’re Apple — with a mind-blowing market cap and a seemingly never-ending supply of hit products — you typically don’t need to craft hopeful-yet-non-material statements or deflect questions designed to get at the bottom line.
Apple’s next earnings call takes place this afternoon. CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri will report on all the numbers. Because of dips in iPhone 14 supplies and no new Macs released between October and December, some analysts expect a slight decline in revenue for the latest quarter.
Wall Street expects Q1 2023 earnings per share of $1.94 to $1.98 (down from $2.10 last year) on roughly $122 billion in revenue (down from $123.9 billion last year).
Note that Q1 refers to Apple’s fiscal calendar Q1, which the company considers to be the holiday season, though most people think of it as the fourth quarter of the year.