Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares jumped over 6% intra-day today after the tech giant reported second-quarter results that surpassed Wall Street expectations, partly due to better-than-expected performance in China. For the quarter ending March 30, Apple announced earnings of $1.53 per share on $90.8 billion in revenue, surpassing analysts’ predictions of $1.50 EPS on $90.32 billion in revenue.
Despite an 8% drop in sales in greater China, to $16.37 billion due to increased competition, the figure still exceeded forecasts of $15.25 billion. Revenue from Apple’s service business, which includes offerings like Apple Music, Apple TV+, and iCloud, increased to $23.87 billion from $20.91 billion the previous year, surpassing projections of $23.27 billion.
Quarterly revenue from wearables and accessories reached $7.91 billion, down from $8.76 billion, while iPad revenue declined by 16.7%. However, Mac sales rose by 3.9% year-on-year.
Apple also announced a $110 billion stock repurchase program and increased its dividend by 4% to $0.25 per share. The large buyback is expected to boost investor confidence as Apple aims to launch new products and solutions to maintain its growth trajectory.
Despite a decline of over 6% this year, causing Apple to lose its position as the world’s most valuable listed company to Microsoft, analysts believe that potential new offerings driven by generative AI, potentially revealed at the upcoming developers’ conference in June, could reverse this trend. Apple recently launched its Vision Pro headset and is expected to release a new version of the iPad in May.
On a call with analysts, CEO Tim Cook emphasized the potential of generative AI to boost hardware demand, even though iPhone sales fell to $45.96 billion from $51.33 billion a year earlier, below estimates of $46 billion.
Looking ahead, Apple anticipates low single-digit revenue growth in the June quarter, suggesting revenue of about $83.5 billion over the three-month period.