Apple's revenue growth decline adds uncertainty to AAPL stock

Mixed Blessings for AAPL Stock Investors
On Nov. 2 in the company’s fiscal 2023 fourth-quarter earnings press release, Apple CEO Tim Cook touted a “September quarter revenue record for iPhone.” This may be true, but it doesn’t tell the full story.
Maybe Cook can’t be blamed for accentuating the positive aspects of Apple’s financial results. After all, being a hype man is part of a chief executive’s job description.
Investors should know that Apple’s Q4 FY2023 iPhone revenue of $43.8 billion only represented an approximately 3% year-over-year increase compared to the year-earlier quarter’s 42.6 billion. That’s in line with Wall Street expectations, and it’s not bad, but it’s also not spectacular.
And with a “Magnificent Seven” company like Apple, the market wants nothing less than amazing results. Instead of “amazing,” Apple’s quarterly results could best be described as “mixed.”
Disappointingly, Apple posted its fourth consecutive quarter of declining year-over-year revenue. This time, Apple’s revenue of $89.5 billion signified a 1% decrease compared to the year-earlier quarter.

Apple’s Disappointing Product Sales
Apple’s sales slid in China, which is experiencing an uneven post-Covid-19 recovery. Specifically, Apple’s China revenue of $15.1 billion was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis.
It’s also problematic that Apple experienced year-over-year declines in sales of certain product categories:
- Wearable, home, and accessories revenue: $9.3 billion, down 3%
- iPad revenue: $6.4 billion, down 10%
- Mac revenue: $7.6 billion, down a whopping 33%
Investors should remember Apple’s most important product is the company’s iPhone. As we discussed earlier, Apple had decent, albeit not outstanding iPhone sales results.
Finally, Apple’s bottom-line results weren’t bad. As it turned out, Apple reported quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.46, up 13% year over year and ahead of the analysts’ consensus estimate of $1.39 per share.