Apple beat analyst expectations for the first quarter, with its services segment, including Apple Music, reporting record revenue of $20.9 billion.
Despite analysts expecting a problematic fiscal quarter, tech giant Apple beat expectations in the March 2023 quarter with a revenue of $94.8 billion. While that number is down 3 percent year over year, Apple’s services segment — including Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple Arcade, among others — reported revenue of $20.9 billion in the quarter, a new record.
“We are pleased to report an all-time record in Services and a March quarter record for iPhone despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, and to have our installed base of active devices reach an all-time high,” said Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook. “We continue to invest for the long term and lead with our values, including making major progress toward building carbon-neutral products and supply chains by 2030.”
The company reported quarterly earnings per share of $1.52, unchanged year over year, while expected earnings per share were $1.43. Apple’s reported net income was $24.16 billion, down from $25 billion the year before.
“Our year-over-year business performance improved compared to the December quarter, and we generated (a) strong operating cash flow of $28.6 billion while returning over $23 billion to shareholders during the quarter,” added Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “Given our confidence in Apple’s future and the value we see in our stock, our Board has authorized an additional $90 billion for share repurchases. We are also raising our quarterly dividend for the eleventh year in a row.”
iPhone sales were expected to decline around 4% due to economic challenges causing consumers to cut back spending, but smartphone sales were up 1.5% year-over-year, to $51.3 billion — an all-time high for a March quarter. Conversely, Mac product sales plunged 31% to $7.2 billion, while iPad sales dropped 13% to $6.7 billion.
Apple provided live streaming of the results of its quarterly financial conference call, the webcast for which is available for replay for approximately two weeks after that.