Apple Posts File Quarterly Outcomes Regardless of Elements Shortages

The iPhone maker had beforehand cautioned that gross sales progress within the vital vacation quarter could be affected within the interval as tech and auto industries face components shortages, particularly a scarcity of microprocessors, amid disruptions from the worldwide pandemic.

“We noticed provide constraints throughout most of our merchandise,” Mr. Cook dinner mentioned in an interview Thursday as the corporate launched its outcomes. “We’re forecasting that we are going to be much less [constrained] in March than we had been within the December quarter.”

Apple ought to see year-over-year income progress within the quarter that runs January by March, he mentioned, whereas remaining circumspect about when the business’s provide points will clear up long-term. “We’re not projecting that,” Mr. Cook dinner mentioned. “You’ll want to know plenty of issues to have the ability to make an correct forecast there, like how are different folks’s calls for along with what sort of provide we are able to squeeze out.”

U.S. equities have taken a wild trip this week amid considerations about inflation and geopolitical dangers. Whereas Apple shares had been on a tear earlier this month, they’d fallen 10% this 12 months earlier than outcomes had been introduced.

Apple’s outcomes—and the market’s response—are being watched carefully by buyers as a bellwether forward of different huge U.S. tech corporations posting quarterly outcomes, together with Amazon.com Inc., Google guardian Alphabet Inc. and Fb-parent Meta Platforms Inc. These corporations report subsequent week.

In what could also be a preview of what’s to return, Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday reported sturdy revenue and gross sales that beat analyst expectations. However the firm’s inventory was nonetheless punished, with shares falling greater than 5% initially in after-hours buying and selling that night earlier than they rose greater than 2% on a rosy forecast.

The swing underscores buyers’s considerations about tech titans’ progress potential and valuations after two years of hovering to new heights. Apple’s efficiency additionally displays its power and sources, particularly with logistics, and should not carry over for different corporations which are set to report.

Buyers have been debating the extent to which Apple’s income could be affected by provide chain issues or waning curiosity in its newest iPhone lineup. Apple’s iPhone 13 fashions are similar to variations launched in October 2020, one thing that previously has been linked to slower gross sales.

Yr-over-year iPhone gross sales rose 9% to $71.6 billion throughout the fiscal first quarter that ran by December, the corporate mentioned. That beat Wall Road expectations for a 3% acquire, in line with the typical estimate from analysts surveyed by FactSet. Analysts undertaking iPhone income will rise lower than 1% this fiscal 12 months in contrast with the previous 12 months, when gross sales rose 39% and helped gasoline Apple’s biggest 12 months ever.

Even with a slowdown, the Cupertino, Calif., tech large reported revenue of $2.10 a share for the vital vacation interval. Analysts had anticipated a revenue of $1.90 a share.

That exceeded the corporate’s earlier greatest quarter a 12 months earlier, when it earned $1.68 a share, fueled by the arrival of the 5G-cellular-capable iPhone 12 fashions and gross sales of iPad tablets and Mac computer systems to employees and college students in lockdown.

Early within the pandemic, Mr. Cook dinner, a longtime logistics professional, largely navigated the corporate across the uneven waters of provide chain disruptions that had disrupted rivals. That capability was examined when the severity of shortages lastly hit Apple final summer time—a sign that no firm may very well be spared from work stoppages, components shortages and labor prices.

Throughout the July-to-September quarter, Apple mentioned it misplaced out on $6 billion in gross sales due to provide constraints and predicted a bigger hit throughout the fiscal first quarter. On Thursday, Mr. Cook dinner mentioned the October-to-December interval was the truth is damage greater than $6 billion however didn’t say by how a lot.

In October, Apple executives additionally cautioned that whereas they anticipated total gross sales to rise throughout the quarter versus a 12 months in the past, the corporate’s iPad enterprise would fall due to provide limitations.

In complete, fiscal first-quarter income rose 11% to a file $123.9 billion, beating analysts expectations for $119 billion. Gross sales of Macs exceeded expectations by rising 25%, whereas iPad income declined 14%, lacking projections for a 2.89% fall.

Generally, Apple generates a lot much less income within the March quarter in contrast with the December interval.

Whereas anticipating a file March quarter in contrast with a 12 months in the past when firm gross sales soared 54% to $89.6 billion, the expansion price ought to gradual from the December interval’s tempo, Apple mentioned Thursday. A part of that’s as a result of the March interval a 12 months in the past was an uncommon file fiscal second quarter fueled by iPhone 12 gross sales pushed into these months due to a delayed launch of the smartphones due to Covid-19.

The corporate additionally expects extra challenges from overseas trade prices in contrast with the December interval. It expects a gross margin for the quarter to be between 42.5% and 43.5%

Regardless of expectations that iPhone gross sales progress will gradual this 12 months, Apple shares had sailed increased in current weeks earlier than the current marketwide downturn. The corporate’s market valuation briefly surpassed $Three trillion on investor enthusiasm for brand spanking new product traces past the iPhone. Many are betting Apple’s foray into extended-reality headsets, probably later this 12 months, will open new doorways for the corporate.

In current weeks, some buyers and analysts have additionally expressed elevated optimism that Apple has discovered methods to spice up manufacturing to fulfill demand.

Nonetheless, Apple had acknowledged longer-than-desired wait occasions for sure merchandise throughout the gift-giving quarter. Including one other wrinkle to the vacation season, the corporate curtailed in-store buying at a number of places all through December because the Covid-19 Omicron variant unfold. The corporate had aimed to return workplace employees to their desks in February however has since postponed such plans

Apple usually faces scrutiny within the years after a giant iPhone debut as analysts and buyers ask what’s subsequent to juice gross sales. Pleasure forward of the iPhone 12 pushed Apple shares to new heights in anticipation that the latest iPhone would gasoline file gross sales.

Buyers’ instincts proved right. Even with Covid-related manufacturing delays, the introduction of the iPhone 12 in late 2020 helped gasoline virtually $100 billion in revenue in fiscal 12 months 2021.

Now buyers and analysts debate whether or not the expansion can proceed.

Write to Tim Higgins at Tim.Higgins@WSJ.com