The ups and downs of Apple’s revenue, earnings per share, iPhone sales, services and wearables.
Apple missed consensus estimates pretty much across the board and was quickly punished in after-hours trading. In fact, 30 minutes before the news hit the wires the stock had given up all of the days gains and more. (Memo to SEC: How does that happen?]
In prepared remarks during the conference call, Tim Cook wasted no time citing supply chain constraints. Then he wasted my tellings me things I already knew for 13 minutes over what sounded like a weak iPhone connection.
From the press release:
Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2021 fourth quarter ended September 25, 2021. The Company posted a September quarter revenue record of $83.4 billion, up 29 percent year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.24.
“This year we launched our most powerful products ever, from M1-powered Macs to an iPhone 13 lineup that is setting a new standard for performance and empowering our customers to create and connect in new ways,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are infusing our values into everything we make — moving closer to our 2030 goal of being carbon neutral up and down our supply chain and across the lifecycle of our products, and ever advancing our mission to build a more equitable future.”
“Our record September quarter results capped off a remarkable fiscal year of strong double-digit growth, during which we set new revenue records in all of our geographic segments and product categories in spite of continued uncertainty in the macro environment,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “The combination of our record sales performance, unmatched customer loyalty, and strength of our ecosystem drove our active installed base of devices to a new all-time high. During the September quarter, we returned over $24 billion to our shareholders, as we continue to make progress toward our goal of reaching a net cash neutral position over time.”
Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.22 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on November 11, 2021 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 8, 2021.
Jason Snell has a transcript of the earnings call.
Below: The five charts. Click the second column to see year-over-year growth. (Not seeing the charts? Try the website.)
Alan Birnbaum MD
Sorry no blowout this qtr- last 3 qtr blowouts were also down- go figure
Typical….
“70% eps rise and p/e only 26,15”
Totally predictable. Apple is ridiculously undervalued. Seen this so often it’s boring.
I second Sacto Joe’s recommendation, but go ahead and and leave ‘disappointing’ unquoted to satisfy typical analyst predilections
As far as putting it in quotes for investors, how about just dropping it altogether.
We’re certainly not disappointed that THEY’RE disappointed.
Perhaps during the Q1 Apple will ramp up their buyback program to $30B. That would be an unthinkable $120B annually if pace maintained. Unbelievable!
My sense is Apple May push to $30B combined ($27B buybacks, $3B dividends) for Q1, especially if stock price is depressed some and FCF is buoyant but scale back in following quarters. I’m thinking they move to $88-96B in buybacks this coming fiscal year.
It still did quite well, thank you, and compares very nicely to the same quarter 2 years back – which is the measuring stick so-called analysts SHOULD have been using.
And obviously, the late start to iWatch sales has also had an impact, which is likely to have an impact both on the present quarter and on the ones following.
and then later he expects a deceleration for q1 also unfounded.
it looks like services is gaining momentum beyond control of Apple.
can save the price of the stock.
“Curious that iPhone sales were down sequentially from last quarter.“
Read my earlier comment for an explanation.
I do recall someone saying this quarter has one additional selling week so there is that to add potential sales revenue assuming sufficient supply.
Having learned the hard way, I hedged my bet and did quite well. Next week I’ll make more, and it won’t matter if AAPL goes up or down. You won’t see me wringing my hands and proclaiming the markets are rigged or whatever.
Thank you options.
Diluted EPS up 69.9% YoY.
iPhone Revenue up 47% YoY.
Services Revenue up 25.6% YoY.
Wearables and Other Revenue up 11.5% YoY.
Clearly, Apple *MUST* be punished for such a poor performance.
The 3Q21 earnings call was already one month into 4Q21. Is there any credibility to the thought that everything within Apple was so out-of-control that reasonable guidance guardrails weren’t feasible? Same for 1Q22? Any damage or volatility in the stock is a needless self-inflicted wound.
4Q21 reality is Apple’s workforce delivered incredible results (e.g., revenue nearly up one third and pre-tax of $23.2 billion – a stunning number). Unfortunately, reality risks being undone for investors, which includes many Apple employees, because a handful of analysts guessed wrongly. The prevalent narrative now for AAPL is the ‘miss’ and ‘disappointment’, undercutting the employees’ undoubtedly Herculean and successful efforts.
Add to this an inability to control the narrative around Apple’s future roadmap as well as total predictability (i.e., silence) dealing with stories and rumors and I believe AAPL’s stock also carries a volatility discount.
Anyway, I have my fingers crossed that the market sees through to the actual results tomorrow.
“Any damage or volatility in the stock is a needless self-inflicted wound.“
What “damage”? The Apple value proposition doesn’t depend on a casino stock market where media manipulation is rife.
1. It isn’t a “wound” but a mirage.
2. It’s not “self-inflicted”.
3. We don’t need a flim-flam artist in charge of Apple. We need exactly what we have: Someone who knows how to stick with the knitting.
Maybe Apple doesn’t need to manage expectations. Maybe Apple just has to know “sell on the news” and set its programmatic buying accordingly. If they set a program in April to buy or sell in July, who can fault them. Same for October.
They are not obligated to manage expectations (though they may have their own): they are only obligated to report the facts per GAAP practices.
Here again I remind of Tim Cook’s words:
“Don’t bet against us.”
With $6B in constrained, IMO, but “not lost” revenue for Q4, and qualitative guidance for Q1 as further supply constrained (to the tune of $8-10B?), I think Q1 estimates will be recalibrated with in this light. I’m sure we and PED will be seeing many analysts comment on this quarter’s possibilities. It’s likely that we could see a flat to modest beat for Q1 as supply balance is pushed out to Q2 or even Q3 assuming demand remains reasonably intact worldwide.
This report is but a bump in the road and has probably already passed.
Strength in the world’s indexes will support AAPL until WS gets its collective head around what happened, then issues new (maybe) price target with justifications.
I see this dip as temporary and of short duration when everyone realizes “lost” September quarter sales were only kicked down the road. .
“2021’s supply side pain will become 2022’s revenue gain”
He forecasts Apple in 2022 will have 10% growth.
apple eps 70% increase
amazon p/e 60
apple p/e 26
what am i missing?
only increasing eps can sustain high p/e
apple had massive profit increase.
jan. 140+ level was with p/e of 40.
current price same level wit p/e 26
numbers are actually really good.
street should value profit instead of sales.
bottom line: apple is really cheap at this price level compared to peers.
The counterargument that these are accretive to valuation more deserves explanation.
For example, I fail to see the 7%+ absolute change in stock price between close yesterday and open this morning is either necessary, the optimal outcome, or inspired investor confidence and commitment.
Further, ‘management’ is different from ‘manipulation’. The former implies ethical control and appropriately balanced transparency and the latter malfeasance. I suggested better management (e.g., accurate guidance to reduce volatility). We agree manipulation is unacceptable.