Apple released its third quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell, slightly beating expectations with $53.8 billion in reported revenue — an increase of 1 percent from the year prior.
Earnings per share were also posted at $2.18, which is up 8 cents from the expected price but a drop of 7 percent from last year. In after-hours trading Apple ($AAPL) shares hit their highest price since October.
“This was our biggest June quarter ever,” Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said in a statement. “These results are promising across all our geographic segments, and we’re confident about what’s ahead.”
Cook added that revenue was largely gained from the tech giant’s Services, which include Apple Pay and the App Store, to name a few, as well as high demand for Wearables, such as the Apple Watch. International sales accounted for 59 percent of the quarter’s revenue, the earnings report added.
Ahead of the release, investors were wary of the company’s growth due to slowing hardware sales, most notably in China where Apple was forced to slash iPhone prices to stay competitive.
“The main reason they were able to meet the numbers … is because the bar was set so low,” Angelo Zino, a senior analyst at CFRA Research, told Cheddar.
The company reported $25.99 billion in iPhone sales in the third quarter, a decrease from the $29.5 billion reported last year.
It has been seven years “since we’ve seen a number this low in terms of iPhone revenue,” Zino said, adding, however, that Apple’s sustained growth is a testament to what the company has done to diversify its business.
Apple also reported strong guidance for the fourth quarter of 2019, with expected revenue to be between $61 billion and $64 billion.
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