14 DAY TRIAL // Apple sold a total of 40.4 million iPhones in the fiscal third quarter ended on June 25, exceeding Wall Street expectations and leading to a 7 percent share increase in after-hours trading.
Specifically, analysts expected the company to sell 40.02 million iPhones, so Apple’s official figures are only a little above the forecast. This small difference, however, which has been received as a major win for Apple, has pushed its share to $103.47 after the results announcement, an increase of 7 percent.
In reality, however, it’s not all just milk and honey for Apple, and despite the better figures, the company’s performance still shows a decline that Cupertino can’t deal with for the moment - and the chances are that it won’t be able to do that in the current quarter either (the 2016 iPhone launches in September, with sales likely to begin later that month or in October, so it’ll make an impact only in the next quarter).
Second straight dropping quarter for the iPhone
First and foremost, Apple’s 40.4 million sold iPhones in the third quarter show a drop of no less than 15 percent from the same period a year ago, despite the arrival of the iPhone SE. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said that the iPhone SE was actually a catalyst for sales exceeding expectations, but even so, iPhone sales dropped for the second straight quarter by 16.3 percent.
The drop experienced by iPhone sales year-over-year also impacted Apple’s total revenue, which was down 14.6 percent for the quarter. The company’s quarterly net profit declined by 27 percent to $7.8 billion while revenues totaled $42.36 billion, once again exceeding Wall Street expectations.
On the other hand, Apple’s third quarter performance shows positive signs, especially given the decline that the company’s most important product is experiencing these days.
When looking at Apple’s last three-month share level, the lowest figure was reached on May 12, when shares dropped to $90.34, but they recovered shortly after to eventually grow to $100.41 on May 26. Another decline was experienced on June 27 to $92.04, but Apple’s share are now once again over $100 thanks to what the company calls strong performance during the third quarter.
The current quarter will end in September, and Apple forecasts revenue between $45.5 billion and $47.5 billion while Wall Street estimates $45.71 million. Cupertino hopes that the debut of the next iPhone will help reach these figures because, depending on the release date of this device, at least one weekend of sales could be included in the quarter.
