Apple closed its first reporting quarter under John Ternus with earnings and revenue beating consensus forecasts, but investors responded with a sell-off: shares lost about 1% after the close. The key disappointment was sales in mainland China, which came in below expectations.
The company earned $2.10 per share on revenue of $114.5 billion — 12% more than a year earlier. Analysts had expected $2.00 per share and $113.4 billion. On Monday, trading closed at $338.32 per share (−1.83%), and after the report was published the price fell to $335.00. The options market had priced in a move of about 3.5%.
Where Apple beat expectations and where it fell short
Net income rose 12% to $30.71 billion. One-time tariff refunds added $0.05 to earnings per share. Gross margin was 47.9%, coming in near the upper end of Apple's own guidance (47–48%); tariff refunds added one percentage point.
iPhone revenue set a September record — $57.58 billion (+17%). Mac sales rose 24% to $10.79 billion. Services revenue matched the forecast at $31.57 billion.
In mainland China, sales rose 21% to $17.54 billion, but analysts had expected about $18.55 billion. iPad sales fell 10%, and wearables fell 8%.
Margin pressure persists due to memory chip costs: data centers developing artificial intelligence are buying up all available supply, and SK Hynix forecasts a memory shortage through 2030.
Why the stock is falling despite a record report
The main decline came in trading before the earnings release — shares fell 1.83% several hours before the data came out. After the release, sellers still had a reason not to buy back the shares: the biggest weak spot was mainland China, which could limit any potential price rebound.
Part of the record is explained by a one-time adjustment. Without the $0.05 tariff refund support, earnings per share would have been $2.05 — the gap with the consensus forecast would have been smaller.
The main intrigue lies ahead. On the investor call, the company will give guidance for the final quarter of the year, which for the first time will fully cover iPhone 18 Pro sales during the holiday period.
A separate risk factor was a security incident in Germany: Digital Minister Carsten Wildberger confirmed that the company warned a number of lawmakers and ministers about attempts to infect them with spyware. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) recommended that they consider their phones compromised. No one has officially named the attacker, and Apple is not commenting on the situation. Analysts, according to Nasdaq calculations, forecast $2.88 per share for the final quarter.
Cryptalist analysis: The gap between a strong report and falling share prices reflects not a deterioration in fundamentals but a shift in investor focus toward the quality of growth — regional weakness in China and one-time margin support from tariffs. For the crypto market, the signal is neutral: the resilience of the largest technology issuer supports overall risk appetite, but pressure on the memory supply chain remains a factor that institutional investors will take into account when assessing the technology sector as a whole.