apple has reported that holiday season sales were much lower than Wall Street feared, showing the effects of the economic slowdown and lingering supply shortages.
Revenue for the first quarter of the fiscal year reached $117.2 billion, the company said in a statement Thursday. This compares to Wall Street’s forecast of about $121.1 billion. Stocks fell in long-term trading.
The results show that Apple has been unable to fend off the technology slowdown that plagues many of its competitors. Demand for smartphones and computers has plummeted over the past year, and his Covid-19 restrictions in China have added to Apple’s woes during holiday sales. Another issue was timing. The company missed the end of the first quarter by not launching new Macs and HomePods until recent weeks.
Earnings per share were $1.88 and the average expectation was $1.94 per share. Continuing the approach it took at the start of his Covid pandemic in 2020, the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant did not provide earnings guidance for the second quarter.
Apple shares rose 3.7% to close at $150.82 in New York. They are up 16% this year.
CEO Tim Cook cited a “challenging environment” in a statement. “We continue to focus on the long term,” he said.
Apple generated $65.8 billion from its flagship iPhone, but fell short of the estimated $68.3 billion. This also represents the $71.6 billion loss this product brought him a year earlier. The latest iPhone is a huge leap forward over its predecessors, but the factory that produces the popular Pro model in China was shut down for weeks during the quarter due to pandemic restrictions.
The company made $7.74 billion from Macs, well short of its $9.7 billion estimate. That’s also down significantly from his $10.9 billion a year ago.
Year-over-year comparisons were tough given that Apple launched its revamped MacBook Pro line during the previous holiday period. This time around, we didn’t update the MacBook Pro and Mac mini models until this quarter.
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