Apple Stock Rises On March-Quarter Beat
Apple (AAPL) stock rose Friday after the consumer electronics giant beat Wall Street's targets for its fiscal second quarter on strong sales in iPhones and services. Apple also raised its quarterly dividend and share repurchase plan.
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The Cupertino, Calif.-based company late Thursday said it earned $1.52 a share on sales of $94.8 billion for the quarter ended April 1. Analysts polled by FactSet had predicted Apple earnings of $1.43 a share on sales of $92.9 billion. On a year-over-year basis, Apple earnings were unchanged while sales fell 3%. It was the second consecutive quarter of sales declines for Apple.
"We are pleased to report an all-time record in services and a March-quarter record for iPhone despite the challenging macroeconomic environment," Chief Executive Tim Cook said in a news release.
Also, Apple increased its quarterly dividend by 4% to 24 cents a share. Plus, Apple's board authorized an additional $90 billion for share repurchases.
Apple Stock Rises After Report
In premarket trading on the stock market today, Apple stock climbed 2.7% to 170.25. During the regular session Thursday, Apple stock fell 1% to close at 165.79.
Apple's services revenue increased 5% year over year to $20.9 billion in the March quarter. But hardware revenue declined 5% to $73.9 billion.
In the March quarter, Apple's iPhone revenue increased 2% to $51.3 billion. Smartphones accounted for 54% of the company's total sales in the period.
Meanwhile, Apple's Mac computer sales tumbled 31% to $7.2 billion. Apple's iPad sales declined 13% to $6.7 billion. And revenue from Apple's wearables, home and accessories unit fell a fraction to $8.8 billion.
Apple stock is on the IBD Tech Leaders list. It has an IBD Composite Rating of 91 out of 99, according to IBD Stock Checkup.
IBD's Composite Rating is a blend of key fundamental and technical metrics to help investors gauge a stock's strengths. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better.
Potential catalysts for Apple stock in the months ahead include the rumored introduction of a mixed-reality headset at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
Follow Patrick Seitz on Twitter at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.
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Source: Investor's Business Daily
