Apple Fails To Impress The Market

Last month has not been a good one for the stock market with both the Dow and Nasdaq 100 reporting steep declines. Nasdaq 100 was down 11% last month, making it the worst month since the 2008 financial crisis. Those expecting a rebound of the tech stocks were disappointed as Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) lackluster performance added to the bearish trend in the market. Post the result announcement, Apple’s stock tumbled 7% in the after-hours trading session. This was the Nasdaq 100 was down 11% last month in more than four years.

Apple’s Financials

Apple’s fourth quarter revenues grew 20% over the year to $62.9 billion, making it the fifth consecutive quarter of double digit revenue growth. EPS grew 41% over the year to $2.91. The market was looking for revenues of $61.57 billion with an EPS of $2.78

By segment, Apple’s iPhone revenues grew 29% over the year to $37.2 billion. By volume, sales were almost flat at 46.89 million iPhone units compared with the market’s forecast of 47.5 million units. The average selling price for the phones, however, grew 28% to $793 compared with market estimates of $750.78. The higher selling price is probably being driven by an increased contribution of the more expensive iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, which were launched at the end of the previous quarter.

Among other segments, iPad revenues fell 15% to $4.1 billion, Mac revenues grew 3% to $7.4 billion, and the services segment grew 17% to $10 billion. Revenues from other products increased 31% to $4.2 billion.

Apple ended the year with revenues of $265.6 billion compared with $229.2 billion reported a year ago. EPS for the year grew from $9.27 last year to $12.01.

For the current quarter, Apple forecast revenues of $89-$93 billion, marginally shy of the market’s forecast of $93.02 billion.

Apple’s Expansion Plans

This was the last quarter that Apple was going to break out the individual sales numbers for its iPhones, Macs, and iPads. The market is speculating that Apple is shying away from disclosing the numbers because smartphone growth is slowing down. According to a recent IDC report , total global smartphone sales have fallen 8% over the year to 360 million units, suggesting that the market has probably peaked. But Apple claims that it will no longer disclose the number of units sold as that is not “representative of the underlying strength” of its business.