Apple's wishy-washy guidance; AMD's AI optimism: Weekly tech roundup
By Louis Juricic and Sarina Isaacs
Investing.com — Here is your weekly Pro Recap on the biggest headlines out of tech this past week: Apple beats estimates but issues weak guidance; AMD impresses with AI outlook; and Qualcomm, Paypal, and Block come in ahead on both their earnings prints and forecasts.
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Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) on Thursday issued a soft sales outlook for the holiday quarter, even as it also topped Street targets for the fiscal Q4.
For the earnings print, Apple said it booked Q4 EPS of $1.46, $0.07 ahead of estimates, on slightly better-than-expected $89.5 billion in sales that absorbed a hit from a 2.5% China drop due to rising competition, mitigated by growth in Americas and Europe.
iPhone revenue rose and in-line 3% to $43.81B from a year earlier, although iPad and Mac revenue plummeted 10% and 34% respectively. Services — including Apple Pay, Apple TV+ and iCloud storage — saw revenue rise 16% to $22.31B to an all-time high, beating estimates by nearly $1B.
CFO Luca Maestri said on the earnings call that fiscal Q1 revenue should be similar to last year's $117.2B, whereas the Street was looking for $122.8B.
Several brokerages lowered their price targets on Apple stock in response — including Citi, which cut it by $10 to $230; Baird by $18 to $186; and JPMorgan and Barlcays by $5 apiece.
And Bernstein said this in a note:
«The December quarter typically sets the tone for the year: Running out normal seasonality from Q1 points to company revenues of $370-380B, below consensus (~$407B).»
Apple shares took a sharp fall in after-hours trading and premarket Friday from their weekly peak, but clawed back to
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