Apple tops Q2 earnings estimates on strong iPhone, China sales – Charm

Apple (AAPL) reported its second quarter earnings on Thursday, topping analysts’ estimates on the top and bottom lines on strong iPhone sales.

Apple stock rose roughly 1% on the news.

For the quarter, Apple saw earnings per share (EPS) of $2.01 on revenue of $111.2 billion. Analysts were anticipating EPS of $1.96 and revenue of $109.66 billion, according to Bloomberg analyst consensus estimates.

That’s up from the EPS of $1.65 and $95.35 billion the company saw in the same quarter last year.

Apple’s iPhone revenue came in at $56.99 billion, just ahead of Wall Street’s projections. This marks the second consecutive quarter of more than 20% revenue growth in the segment.

Apple CEO Tim Cook cited “extraordinary” demand for the iPhone 17 lineup for the earnings beat.

The company’s second-largest business, Services, generated revenue of $30.97 billion versus an expected $30.37 billion. Apple saw Services revenue of $26.64 billion in Q2 last year.

Mac revenue hit $8.39 billion. Apple’s Mac mini has been a breakout star of the AI boom as of late, thanks to developers buying up the tiny desktop to power instances of the AI agent OpenClaw. Apple also debuted its $599 MacBook Neo in early March.

The company’s Greater China revenue improved to $20.49 billion. Analysts were expecting $18.9 billion.

This is Apple’s first quarterly report since it announced Cook will step down as CEO in September and be succeeded by senior vice president of hardware John Ternus.

Apple, like the rest of the smartphone and computer industry, is dealing with the impact of the global memory shortage caused by the worldwide AI data center build-out.

According to the International Data Corporation, global smartphone shipments declined 4.1% in the first quarter to 289.7 million units. That broke a 10-quarter streak of growth that began in mid-2023.

The market research firm says that premium smartphones, like the iPhone, should be largely insulated from demand destruction, but Apple has also warned that increased memory prices could hurt margins.