Strong margins but weakening revenue of Apple | Calamatta Cuschieri
Markets update & Apple earnings report for Q1 2019
Nearly all of Europe’s major indexes were in the green on Tuesday, with the Stoxx Europe up 1% to 357.94. France’s CAC 40 surged 1.1% to 4,945.19 and the FTSE 100 rose 1.4% to reach 6,840.84. Germany’s DAX 30 and Italy’s FTSE MIB Italy Index, lagged behind, with gains of 0.2% and 0.8%, respectively.
U.S. stocks end mostly lower on Tuesday, The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%, to 24,579.96, while the S&P 500 index slid 0.2%, to 2,640, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.8%, to 7,028.29.
Maltese stocks were mostly in green, with MSE Equity Total Return Index ending the session 0.11% higher to 8,836.814 points. Biggest gainers were Grand Harbour Marina plc and Malita Investment plc, adding 1.67% and 1.12% to close at 0.61 and 0.90 respectively. GO plc, HSBC Bank Malta plc and International Hotel Investments plc were closed unchanged.
Apple earnings report, first quarter of 2019
Today Apple announced their first quarter earnings for their 2019 fiscal year, and with the fortunes of the company so tied to the iPhone in a stumbling smartphone market, revenues fell despite some segments outperforming estimates. Revenue for the quarter was down 5% year-over-year to $84.3 billion. Gross margin was 38%, down 0.4% from a year ago. Operating income was down 11.1% to $23.3 billion, but thanks to lower taxes, net income was down only 0.5%, coming in at $19.97 billion. Earnings per share were at an all-time high, thanks to share buybacks, with a diluted EPS of $4.18, up 7.4% from a year ago.
iPhone sales struggled, at least by Apple standards, and due to dropping unit sales, Apple has stopped reporting individual unit sales numbers. As such, we can only look at revenue, but this doesn’t paint a great picture either, with revenue down 14.9% year-over-year, to $51.98 billion. It’s still a huge amount of revenue for a single product category of course.
Despite the drop in iPhone revenue, not all news is bad for Apple. Both Mac and iPad had revenue gains this quarter, with the Mac up 8.7% to $7.4 billion, and iPad was up almost 17% to $6.7 billion for the quarter. Those gains definitely helped out when the iPhone took such a big hit.
Apple’s wearables, home, and accessories, which includes the Apple Watch, Beats, and more, also had a good quarter, with revenue up 33.3% over the holiday quarter. Without unit sales, it’s hard to break out what segments are doing well here, and with Apple adding new products to this category it also grows in that regard, but nevertheless, this is solid growth.
Apple’s services segment has quickly become their secondary unit for revenue, with continued growth of just over 19% year-over-year to $10.9 billion.
Disclaimer: This article was issued by Nadiia Grech, junior trader at Calamatta Cuschieri. For more information visit, www.cc.com.mt. The information, view and opinions provided in this article are being provided solely for educational and informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice, advice concerning particular investments or investment decisions, or tax or legal advice. Calamatta Cuschieri Investment Services Ltd has not verified and consequently neither warrants the accuracy nor the veracity of any information, views or opinions appearing on this website.