Apple Profit, Revenues Top Wall Street View, Outlook Disappoints; Shares Down 4%

(RTTNews) - Apple Inc. (AAPL) Thursday reported an earnings and revenues for the fourth quarter that trumped Wall Street estimates, helped by strong demand for its pricier iPhone X and XS. However, shares slipped over 4 percent in extended session after the iPhone maker issued a weak revenue outlook for the holiday season quarter.

Apple sold 46.89 million iPhone units during quarter, generating $37.19 billion in revenues, compared with 46.68 million units and $28.85 billion in revenues last year. Analysts' expected iPhone sales of 47.5 million handsets.

Although, iPhone units sales for the quarter were relatively flat, iPhone revenues jumped a sharp 29 percent largely helped by premium iPhone X and XS, which carry a significant price premium over the iPhone 8 and previous models.

"We're thrilled to report another record-breaking quarter that caps a tremendous fiscal 2018, the year in which we shipped our 2 billionth iOS device, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the App Store and achieved the strongest revenue and earnings in Apple's history," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO.

"Over the past two months, we've delivered huge advancements for our customers through new versions of iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and Mac as well as our four operating systems, and we enter the holiday season with our strongest lineup of products and services ever."

Apple's bottom line continues to be buoyed by iPhone sales, as it contributes about two-thirds of Apple's revenues and a major part of its profit.

"We concluded a record year with our best September quarter ever, growing double digits in every geographic segment. We set September quarter revenue records for iPhone and Wearables and all-time quarterly records for Services and Mac," said CFO Luca Maestri.

Meanwhile, Apple's services business, which includes digital content and other services, revenues reached an all-time high of $10 billion.

Apple reported fourth-quarter profit of $14.12 billion or $2.91 per share, up from $10.71 billion or $2.07 per share last year. On average, 34 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $2.78 per share for the quarter.

Apple said its revenues climbed 20 percent to $62.90 billion from last year's $52.58 billion. Analysts had a consensus revenues prediction of $61.57 billion.

Looking forward to the first quarter, Apple expects revenue between $89 billion and $93 billion. Analysts currently project revenues of $92.91 billion.

Apple also declared a cash dividend of $0.73 per share, payable on November 15 to shareholders of record on November 12.

AAPL closed Thursday's trading at $222.22, up $3.36 or 1.54% on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, slipped $9.22 or 4.15% in the after-hours trade.