By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Apple stock (NASDAQ:AAPL) traded nearly 5% higher in premarket Friday after the company defied supply shortages to post record quarterly revenue that beat all estimates.
The company’s revenue rose 11% year-on-year to almost $124 billion in the fourth quarter ended December 25 as sales of iPhones and most of its other devices soared. Revenue from services, seen as the key to its future growth, jumped 24% to top $19 billion.
Sales of iPhones jumped more than 9% to near $72 billion, their share in the total product revenue of over $104 billion remaining unchanged around 69%. The company was the biggest seller of smartphones in China in December quarter, according to Counterpoint.
The world’s most valuable company has used its heft with vendors to handle supply chain challenges, factory shutdowns and shipping delays the best among competitors. Those troubles cost Apple about $6 billion in lost sales in its fourth quarter. Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told Reuters those shortages are now easing.
Another factor boosting the stock is the company talking about its metaverse plans Thursday. The company has 14,000 AR apps on its app store, and according to Reuters, CEO Tim Cook expects the number to go up. Cook said Apple's research and development efforts are focused on the intersection of hardware, software and services.
The impact of chip shortages was most visible on sales of iPads, the lone product in the Apple portfolio to have seen an erosion. Sales of the device fell 14% to $7.3 billion. Reports had earlier said that the company was diverting chips meant for iPads to iPhones.
Mac sales jumped 25% while those of wearable, home and accessories – another emerging focus area for Apple – were higher by over 13%.
Away from the earnings report, Thursday also saw the attorneys general for 34 U.S. states and the District of Columbia throw their weight behind Epic Games, the publisher of 'Fortnite', in its antitrust fight against Apple. The states appealed against a ruling that dismissed most of Epic's complaints that Apple's app store fees and other practises were anti-competitive.