Apple figures: Is AI pushing the iPhone 16?
Apple presented its figures for the 3rd quarter from July to September on Thursday evening. It is solid, but China remains a problem – and the EU.
Apple retail business: How are iPhone, Mac and co. selling this time?
(Image: Apple)
Revenue up 6.1 percent to 94.9 billion US dollars: Apple once again did good business in the third quarter of 2024. However, profits fell sharply: they amounted to just 14.7 billion (0.97 dollars per diluted share), compared to 23 billion (1.46 dollars per diluted share) in the previous year. However, there is a good reason for this: Apple had to pay a large tax refund in the EU after the European Court of Justice ruled in the last instance that the iPhone manufacturer had unjustifiably received billions in indirect subsidies from the Republic of Ireland.
EU asks to pay up
The penalty to the EU amounted to a total of 13 billion euros, which Apple has now realized in its books. If the company had not lost the tax proceedings, its profit would have increased compared to the same quarter last year: to 1.64 dollars per diluted share or by 12 percent.
In total, Apple recorded a "one-time charge" of 10.2 billion dollars – and hopes that this is the end of the matter. On the other hand, Apple's market weakness in China is not a done deal: sales here amounted to 15 billion dollars and were therefore slightly down. Analysts had estimated 15.8 billion.
iPhone, Mac, iPad are doing well
Demand for the iPhone was good – probably also thanks to the announcement of Apple Intelligence, which was only published this week (and only in US English and incomplete). The iPhone division achieved sales growth of 5.5 percent to 46.22 billion dollars. iPad sales also grew, most likely thanks to the iPad Pro M4 and iPad Air M2, significantly by 7.9 percent to 6.95 billion dollars. Mac sales increased slightly by 1.7 percent to 7.74 billion dollars.
The usually strong services business with App Store, content, Apple Pay & Co. increased by 11.9 percent to 24.7 billion dollars. On the other hand, there was a decline in sales in the wearables, home and accessories segments. The 9.04 billion dollars in sales now realized corresponds to a decrease of 3 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
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Waiting for Christmas
As usual, much now depends on Christmas sales. Sales of the four iPhone 16 models and the Apple Watch Series 10 are only included in these quarterly figures for a few days, as the devices were only launched on September 20. Apple did not want to provide an outlook on the expected figures for the fourth quarter. According to outgoing Apple CFO Luca Maestri, operating cash flow amounted to 27 billion dollars. Apple intends to pass on 29 billion to investors in the form of dividends and share buybacks. A dividend of 0.25 dollars per share was set. The active installed base once again reached a record level, according to Maestri.
In the full fiscal year, which Apple closed at the end of the third calendar quarter, the iPhone manufacturer achieved gross sales of 391 billion dollars, 7.7 billion dollars more than in the previous year. The gross margin was 180.7 billion, which is also an increase. The stock market initially reacted negatively to the quarterly figures. Shortly after the announcement, Apple shares fell by over 1.9 percent in after-hours trading. The main reason cited was the sluggish business in China. So far this year, the share price has risen by 17 percent.
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