Apple earnings ahead: What to know as Cook succession looms

Apple (AAPL) will report its second quarter earnings on Thursday after the bell, the company’s first quarterly report since it announced Tim Cook would step down as CEO in September and be succeeded by senior vice president of hardware John Ternus, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

Apple is coming off a record first quarter thanks to strong iPhone sales, and Wall Street is looking for more of the same in Q2. But the company, like the rest of the smartphone and computer industry, is dealing with the impact of the global memory shortage caused by the worldwide AI data center build-out.

According to the International Data Corporation, global smartphone shipments declined 4.1% in the first quarter to 289.7 million units. That broke a 10-quarter streak of growth that began in mid-2023.

The market research firm says that premium smartphones, like the iPhone, should be largely insulated from demand destruction, but Apple has also warned that increased memory prices could hurt margins.

For the quarter, Wall Street is anticipating Apple to report earnings per share (EPS) of $1.96 on revenue of $109.66 billion, according to Bloomberg analyst consensus estimates.

That’s up from EPS of $1.65 and $95.35 billion in revenue the company saw in the same quarter last year.

Apple’s iPhone revenue is expected to increase 21.64% year over year to $56.97 billion, marking the second quarter of 20% plus growth in the segment.

The company’s second-largest segment, Services, is projected at $30.37 billion, up from $26.64 billion in Q2 last year.

Mac revenue is also expected to see a slight boost to $8.13 billion. Apple’s Mac mini has been a breakout star of the AI boom as of late, thanks to developers buying up the tiny desktop to power instances of the AI agent OpenClaw.

Apple also debuted its $599 MacBook Neo in early March, which could also help boost Mac sales moving forward.

The company’s Greater China revenue appears set to come in at $18.9 billion, up 18.15% year over year, and slightly down quarter over quarter.

Investors will also be curious to see if Cook provides any commentary around Apple’s ongoing AI efforts during the company’s earnings call.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple will debut a number of AI updates at its upcoming WWDC event in June, which should include a look at the company’s next-generation Siri and other AI features.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev