Apple's Record Beyond Market Expectations

It would be fair to say that Wall Street was feeling the jitters in the run-up to Apple’s latest quarterly earnings announcement on Tuesday.

- Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan

THE WRITING WASN’T QUITE ON THE WALL STREET

Persistent reports of unexpectedly weak iPhone X sales were a factor when, in mid-March, the NYSE FANG+ Index – which monitors 10 leading tech companies, including Apple – saw its largest ever one-day drop. However, the release of the actual earnings results, and many pledges made by Apple in the aftermath, have given much cause for optimism.

GLOOMY PREDICTIONS, BUT WITH TINGES OF OPTIMISM

The week before, GBH analyst Daniel Ives admitted that “the Street has gone into ‘full panic mode’ as supply chain checks out of Asia indicate that June iPhone shipments are trending well below expectations.” One of Apple’s main suppliers, the Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC, had already lowered its guidance, sparking Morgan Stanley into dramatically slashing its estimates for July iPhone sales from 40.5 million to 34 million units - against a market consensus of 43 million units.

Bernstein’s predictions for the June quarter were similarly shrouded in pessimism, with the firm expecting Apple to provide guidance of $47 billion to $49 billion for its revenue in the June quarter. This was noticeably lower than the $51.9 billion generally anticipated by the market – and followed Bank of America Merill Lynch’s warning that the “magnitude [of the bad news] could be surprising to some.” However, such despondency was also balanced with more favorable reports.