Apple’s iPhone Sales Disappoint Wall Street

Stock falls 8% in after-hours trading, despite record revenue

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Anthony Behar — Sipa USA

Apple reported record quarterly revenue on Monday evening, but that didn’t prevent underwhelming iPhone sales from pulling down the stock in the hour after the announcement.

Shares had dropped almost 8% during after-hours trading by 6:15 p.m., as investors looked at results and signaled displeasure with Apple’s iPhone sales. Though the company sold a record 51 million iPhones over the past quarter, sales were still lower than the 56 million to 57 million units many analysts had expected after the holiday sales period.

Revenue was at a record level of $57.6 billion and quarterly net profit was $13.1 billion. But the company’s revenue outlook for the current quarter was between $42 billion and $44 billion, less than the expected $46 billion.

CEO Tim Cook told investors on an earnings call that a stronger U.S. dollar and inventory corrections on Apple’s main products were hurting the company’s forecasts for the current quarter. “The underlying performance of our business is stronger than that guidance might imply,” Cook said.

Apple sold 26 million iPads during the quarter, compared with 22.9 million this time last year. The company also announced it had sold 4.8 million Macs, up from 4.1 million in the first quarter last year. Apple’s China sales increased dramatically compared with last year, increasing 29% to $8.8 billion, even as its Americas sales remained pretty flat at around $20.1 billion.

“We established a new all-time quarterly records for iPad and iPhone sales,” Cook said. “We were also very pleased with our results in emerging markets around the world.”