Apple Co reported only a $0.03 improvement in its EPS (equity per share) vs average analyst estimate of $1.50 in Q1 2024. The iPhone maker shows nearly permanent profit numbers in the first quarters over the past three years, even though sales of its gadgets are reduced, so that Apple's total revenues degraded from $97.28 billion in Q1 2022 to $94.8 billion in Q1 2023, ending to $90.8 billion during the first three months of 2024. Therefore, Apple sales dropped, but less than feared, with profit lines dynamics indicating higher efficiency squeezed from collected money.

App Store contribution grew despite the shop of applications being put under pressure from new European regulatory rules to prevent monopolizing of the market and driving up prices. Sales in the services segments, like Apple Music and Apple TV, reached $23.87 billion vs analyst expectations of $23.27 billion. Consensus expected MacBook sales to go down once again, but they instead grew to $7.5 billion, thanks to the strength of the new MacBook Air, powered by the M3 chip. Yet, the iPad segment declined to $5.56 billion, below average expectations of $5.91 billion. In the wearables, like Apple Watches and AirPods, sales decreased to $7.91 billion, below expectations of $8.08 billion. Apple also authorized an additional $110 billion for its buyback program, a big sum to encourage the crowd.

Meanwhile, its CEO Tim Cook said the giant company sees a return to further sales growth already in the current quarter, so that growth by "low-single digits" in revenue could be expected before the end of June. He added Apple is focused on investing more into artificial intelligence (AI) features at the moment. Competitive environment became less friendly to Apple after Samsung Electronics, Huawei and other rivals introduced new devices especially aimed at hosting AI chatbots. "We continue to feel very bullish about our opportunity in generative AI and we're making significant investments. We're looking forward to sharing some very exciting things with our customers" at events later this year, Tim Cook announced. He added that iPhone sales experienced "growth in some markets, including China". Apple's decline in China was narrower than feared, with sales of $16.37 billion lying above consensus expectations of $15.6 billion, down 8.1% in the quarter. Amazingly, a cumulative effect from verbal statements and these figures was enough for Apple stock to bounce by nearly 7%, from its closing price of $173.18 during the regular session on May 2 to a $185 area in the first hour of extended trading. The stock came down by almost the same quantity of percentage points in the last three months when IPhone sales lowered by 10.5%. Thus, Apple share price just seemingly won back that loss following last night's quarterly release. Much better than nothing, yet it is too early to tell about breaking contradictory trends. The report contained some positive aspects and may initiate a new wave of re-testing the next $190 to $195 range due to inertia. Yet, further price increases and a more stable bullish trend for Apple are still not entirely supported by fundamentals.