Research archive for AAPL

Last night Apple reported 'meh' results, with both revenue and profits slightly higher than forecast, but forward guidance lighter than the market wanted. For the quarter, Apple reported revenue of $81.8 billion, down 1% from a year earlier. At their scale, it's hard to move the needle up or down.

Take a look at the top 10 biggest companies on the planet. Other than Aramco and Berkshire, 8 of these are tech companies. This is certainly a sign of the times and it is no coincidence that Vestact portfolios are heavily focused on tech.

Apple has not really spoken much about AI. At their latest Worldwide Developers Conference, they did not mention it once which is almost unheard of at the moment. But in reality, AI is all over their products and software.

Apple is the biggest and best company on the planet. That's not just my opinion, it's a position that is established by its towering market capitalisation of $2.9 trillion. Billions of dollars exchange hands every single minute of every trading day on the stock market, and freely-traded share prices determine each company's value. Apple is the biggest and the best, based on the trades of millions of retail investors, thousands of analysts and hundreds of institutions.

Soccer is the most popular sport on the planet but it has not quite cracked the US yet. Apple thinks that this will change. They signed a $2.5 billion rights deal last year to broadcast Major League Soccer (MLS) in a subscription package on Apple TV+ for 10 years.

It was all about Apple yesterday. The share price reached a record high, leading into the announcement for its new VR headset. This is the first new product category launched under Tim Cook. In the presentation, Cook spoke about how the Mac pioneered computing to the household, the iPhone made things mobile and now the Vision Pro introduces spacial-computing.

Apple shares are up about a third this year, and they rose another 5% on Friday. Apple is already the most valuable company on the planet. Revenues were an eye-popping $94.8 billion for the quarter while net profits were $24.2 billion. Analysts had predicted $93 billion in revenue and $22.6 billion in net profits.

Charlie Bilello pointed out that the combined market capitalisation of Apple and Microsoft ($4.7 trillion) was $2 trillion bigger than the whole Russell 2000 ($2.7 trillion). The Russell 2000 is a small cap index made up of 2000 of the lesser stocks listed in the US.

The revenue mix of Apple changes quarterly. iPhone launches, festive season spending and new product releases all have an impact. One thing that you can count on is constant growth in services revenue.

I like to keep tabs on the sustainability credentials of our recommended stocks. According to a recent survey, Apple ranked top of the list for green revenue. The assessment found that Apple generates $259 billion in sustainable sales and that at least 71% of their revenue comes from sustainable sources.

Apple released their fourth quarter earnings last week Thursday which missed expectations. This was only the third time in 20 years (80 quarterly reports) that Apple missed estimates, according to an analyst that I follow. That's a great track record! The share price actually rallied by 2.5% on Friday, against the tide as the Nasdaq dropped 1.6%.

Apple closed up 7% on Friday, a day after reporting surprisingly good numbers for the September quarter. This has been especially impressive since it came off a very high base which was fuelled by pandemic spending when people were stuck at home buying luxury items instead of experiences.

Apple iPhones have about 16% of the global smartphone market. Probably more significant is that it has 50% of the US smartphone market. As Paul mentioned above, services is becoming a bigger part of Apple's profits. Rich Americans are highly desirable customers.

Apple is by far the most important holding in our client base. The aggregate value of shares in custody in New York is over $57 million, across 809 accounts.

Apple is trying to expand its advertising business which already makes $4 billion a year. Did you know they had an ads business? The Tim Cook-led company makes money by displaying ads in its News and Stocks apps, as well as inside the App Store (including Google-like search ads), across the iPhone, iPad and Mac. Recently the company also put adverts on TV+ for its "Friday Night Baseball" deal with Major League Baseball.