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Apple is more exposed to the consumer economy than other tech hardware companies.
Photo by DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images
Strong iPhone sales helped drive
Manzana
to better-than-expected sales and profits in its latest quarter.
Shares of the tech giant (ticker: AAPL) were up 2.8% in after-hours trading Thursday.
For its fiscal third quarter, Apple posted sales of $83 billion and profits of $1.20 a share, edging the consensus estimate of $82.7 billion and $1.16 a share. Despite concerns about supply-chain issues, iPhone sales in the quarter were $40.7 billion, close to $2 billion above expectations, and up 3% from last year.
Sales of Mac computers, however, fell short of expectations. Mac sales were $7.4 billion in the quarter, down 10% from last year and below the consensus of $8.6 billion. iPad sales were $7.2 billion, down 2%, but ahead of the consensus by about $400 million.
Apple CEO Tim Cook noted on a call with analysts that the revenue impact of supply constraints in the quarter were slightly below the expected range of between $4 billion to $8 billion, but nonetheless affected both Mac and iPad sales.
Wearables, home, and accessories segment sales were $8.1 billion, down 8%, and likewise about $400 million below expectations. Services revenue was $19.6 billion, up 12% and in line with expectations. Apple CFO Luca Maestri said on the company’s conference call that the company now has more than 860 million paid subscriptions across the platform, up 160 million over the last 12 months.
Apple spent $21.7 billion to buy back its common stock in the quarter, and now has about $60 billion in net cash.
Maestri said Apple expects revenue in the September quarter to accelerate from the June quarter, despite 600 basis points of foreign exchange headwinds. But he said the company sees gross margin between 41.5% and 42.5%, down from 43.3% in the June quarter; Maestri said the decline reflects both currency and product mix factors. The company said services growth is expected to slow down in the quarter due to both macroeconomic and foreign exchange factors.
Maestri also said that the impact of supply constraints should be lower in the September quarter than they were in the June quarter.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at eric.savitz@barrons.com
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