Apple reported higher than expected earnings and revenue results for its 3rd quarter yesterday, bumping Apple’s market cap as high as $972B in after-hours trading.
As fears of a massive sell-off of tech stocks continue, Apple’s strong earnings should soothe the worried minds of investors — and make Amazon sweat in the ongoing race to $1T.
Not ‘trillion-dollar’ good… but still pretty darn good
Although Q3 is typically Apple’s lowest performing quarter, the company reported positive results across the board with an overall 32% increase in profits. But, Apple investors should be particularly excited about the 31% growth in Apple’s services division.
Apples services (which include the app store, music-streaming, and iCloud storage) typically take a back seat to iPhone sales, but their growth proves Apple can compete beyond hardware.
It doesn’t hurt that Apple’s hardware sales also remained strong — with iPhone sales increasing 20%, Apple watches and AirPods growing 37% (the only slight decrease was iPads and Macs, down 5%).
Frazzled tech investors can take a deep breath
After a lackluster earnings report wiped a historic $120B+ off Facebook’s market cap last week, investors feared a broader tech slump when Netflix, Amazon, and Alphabet stocks all subsequently slipped.
But now, thanks to Apple’s strong earnings and stable sales, tech investors can put aside the panic buttons and pick up the popcorn to watch the final leg of the race to $1T play out.