Apple reported second-fiscal quarter earnings on Thursday that beat Wall Street’s soft expectations for sales and revenue, driven by stronger-than-anticipated iPhones sales. Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC that the quarter was “better than we expected.”
However, Apple’s overall sales fell for the second quarter in a row. Apple shares rose less than 1% in extended trading.
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Here’s how the company did versus Wall Street expectations per Refinitiv consensus expectations:
EPS: $1.52 vs. $1.43 expected
Revenue: $94.84 billion vs. $92.96 billion expected
Gross margin: 44.3% vs. 44.1% expected
Apple reported $24.16 billion in net income during the quarter versus $25.01 billion last year. Overall revenue was down 3% from last year’s $97.28 billion in sales.
Here’s how Apple’s individual product lines did versus StreetAccount consensus expectations:
iPhone revenue: $51.33 billion vs. $48.84 billion expected
Mac revenue: $7.17 billion vs. $7.80 billion expected
iPad revenue: $6.67 billion vs. $6.69 billion expected
Other Products revenue: $8.76 billion vs. $8.43 billion expected
Services revenue: $20.91 billion vs. $20.97 billion expected
Apple didn’t provide formal guidance, continuing its practice that dates back to 2020 and the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Management typically provides some data points on a call with analysts.
The highlight of Apple’s report was iPhone sales, which grew from the year-ago quarter even as the broader smartphone industry contracted nearly 15% during the same time, according to an IDC estimate.
IPhone revenue grew 2% during the quarter, suggesting that parts shortages and supply chain issues that had hampered the product for the last few years, including an iPhone factory shutdown late last year, had finally abated.
“It was quite a good quarter from an iPhone point of view, particularly relative to the market when you look at the market stats,” Cook told CNBC’s Steve Kovach.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Apple Tim Cook waves to people during the opening of the first Apple Inc. flagship store in Mumbai, India on April 18, 2023.
Imtiyaz Shaikh | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Apple’s Mac and iPad businesses didn’t fare as well. The company warned last quarter that both business segments would decline, partially due to parts shortages, but they decreased more than expectations.
Apple’s Mac business fell more than 31% to just over $7.17 billion. But it’s a difficult comparison versus the same time last year when Apple was still benefiting from the end of a pandemic boom in PC sales and a shift to its own chips that offer longer laptop battery life.
“There’s really two reasons for that,” Cook said. “One is the macro situation in general. And the other is where we’re still comparing to the very difficult compare of the M1 MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch from the year-ago quarter.”
Revenue from iPads declined nearly 13% to $6.67 billion.
Apple’s Services business includes monthly subscriptions, revenue from Apple’s App Store, warranties, and search licensing revenue from companies like Google. Apple reported $20.9 billion in services revenue, a 5.45% annual increase, showing that the company’s most highest-margin line of business continues to grow.
Apple’s wearables division, including Apple Watch and headphones such as AirPods, dropped 1% during the quarter, beating analyst expectations. Last fall, Apple released a more expensive Apple Watch, called Ultra.
Apple’s greater China business, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong in addition to the mainland, reported $17.81 billion in sales, down from last year’s $18.34 billion. Analysts had hoped that China’s demand for electronics would rise this year as the company exits out of Covid-era lockdowns and other restrictions.
While sales shrunk in most regions that Apple monitors, they grew in its Asia Pacific region to $8.11 billion.
Cook was optimistic about Apple’s prospects in India. Cook visited India last month to open Apple stores and meet with politicians.
“The switcher and first-time buyer metrics look very good there for India,” Cook said. Apple uses the term “switcher” to refer to first-time iPhone buyers who previously had Android devices.
As expected, Apple’s board authorized $90 billion in share repurchases and dividends. Apple said it paid $23 billion in buybacks and dividends in the March quarter. Apple also raised its dividend 4% to 24 cents per share.
Cook also said that Apple was not planning layoffs like those that other big tech companies have started over the past year.
“I view that as a last resort and, so, mass layoffs is not something that we’re talking about at this moment,” Cook said.
A government intervention in struggling chipmaker Intel is “essential” for the sake of national security, analyst Gil Luria said Friday, following a report that the Trump administration is weighing taking a stake in the company.
“We’re all capitalists,” Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We don’t want government to intervene and own private enterprise, but this is national security.”
Bloomberg reported Thursday that the Trump administration is considering having the U.S. government take a stake in Intel. The news sent Intel shares higher, and the stock climbed again Friday.
Intel previously declined to comment on the report.
Luria said such a deal is needed to revive Intel and reduce the country’s reliance on companies like Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor to manufacture chips. President Donald Trump has called for more chips and high-end technology to be made in the U.S.
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How the White House could structure such an intervention is still in question. Bloomberg reported Friday that the administration has discussed using funds from the CHIPS Act.
Intel received $7.9 billion from the Department of Commerce through the CHIPS Act, and it was awarded roughly $3 billion under the CHIPS Act for the Pentagon’s Secure Enclave program.
“Intel has had many opportunities over decades to get it right, and it hasn’t. So we need to intervene,” Luria said. “The government’s going to come in and it’s going to give Intel unfair advantages, and if it’s going to do that, it wants a piece of the business.”
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan met with Trump at the White House on Monday after the president called for his resignation based on allegations that he has ties to China.
Luria pointed to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comments that the rise of superintelligent AI could be “the next wave of nuclear proliferation,” as evidence that direct intervention by the government is needed.
“We can’t rely on somebody else making shell casings for our nuclear arsenal,” Luria said. “We have to get it right.”
Applied Materials shares sank more than 10% in extended trading Thursday as the semiconductor equipment company provided outlook for the current quarter that came in light.
Here’s how Applied Materials did in its third-quarter earnings results versus LSEG consensus estimates:
EPS: $2.48, adjusted, versus $2.36 estimated.
Revenue: $7.3 billion vs $7.22 billion estimated.
Applied Materials said it expects $2.11 per share in adjusted earnings in the current quarter, lower than LSEG estimates of $2.39 per share. The company said to expect $6.7 billion in revenue, versus $7.34 billion estimated.
CEO Gary Dickerson said that the current macroeconomic and policy environment is “creating increased uncertainty and lower visibility.” He said the company’s China business is particularly effected by the uncertainty.
The Trump administration’s tariffs could double the price of imported chips unless companies buying them commit to building in the U.S. Applied Materials makes tools for chip foundries to physically make chips, much of which currently happens in Asia.
Applied Materials said that it has a large backlog of pending export license applications with the U.S. government, but that it’s assuming none of them will be issued in the next quarter.
“We are expecting a decline in revenue in the fourth quarter driven by both digestion of capacity in China and non-linear demand from leading-edge customers given market concentration and fab timing,” the company’s finance chief said in a statement. He added that it expected lower China business to continue for several more quarters.
Applied Materials reported $1.78 billion in net income, or $2.22 per diluted share in the quarter, versus $1.71 billion or $2.05 in the year-ago period.
The company’s most important division, semiconductor systems, reported $5.43 billion in sales, topping estimates, and representing a 10% rise from last year.
Applied Materials was praised by President Donald Trump earlier this month after it was included in an Apple program to make more chips in the U.S.
Apple said it would partner with the chipmaker to produce more manufacturing equipment in Austin, Texas.
Lip-Bu Tan, chief executive officer of Intel Corp., departs following a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Aug. 11, 2025.
Alex Wroblewski | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Intel shares rose 7% on Thursday after Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration is in talks with the chipmaker to have the U.S. government take a stake in the struggling company.
Intel is the only U.S. company with the capability to manufacture the fastest chips on U.S. shores, although rivals including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung also have U.S. factories. President Donald Trump has called for more chips and high technology to be manufactured in the U.S.
The government’s stake would help fund factories that Intel is currently building in Ohio, according to the report.
Earlier this week, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan visited Trump in the White House, a meeting that took place after the president had called for Tan’s resignation based on allegations he has ties to China.
Intel said at the time that Tan is “deeply committed to advancing U.S. national and economic security interests.” An Intel representative declined to comment about reports that the government is considering taking a stake in the company.
“We look forward to continuing our work with the Trump Administration to advance these shared priorities, but we are not going to comment on rumors or speculation,” the spokesperson said.
Tan took over Intel earlier this year after the chipmaker failed to gain significant share in artificial intelligence chips, while it was spending heavily to build its foundry business, which manufactures chips for other companies.
Intel’s foundry business has yet to secure a major customer, which would be a critical step in moving towards expansion and giving other potential customers the confidence to turn to Intel for manufacturing.
In July, Tan said that Intel was canceling plans for manufacturing sites in Germany and Poland and would slow down development in Ohio, adding that spending at the chipmaker would be closely scrutinized.
Under Trump, the U.S. government has increasingly moved to put itself at the center of deals in major industries. Last week, it said it would take 15% of certain Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices chip sales to China. The Pentagon bought a $400 million equity stake in rare-earth miner MP Materials.It also took a “golden share” in U.S. Steel as part of a deal to allow Nippon Steel to buy the U.S. industrial giant.
Intel shares are now up 19% this year after losing 60% of their value in 2024, the worst year on record for the chipmaker.