‘beyond what bulls were hoping for’

Shares of Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) are up 5.0% in extended trading after the iPhone maker said it outdid supply constraints to top $30 billion in quarterly earnings for the first time. CEO Tim Cook agreed in an interview with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin that supply issues were worse in the holiday quarter compared to Q4 but said:

Our biggest issue is chip supply; chip supply on legacy nodes. We’re doing okay on the leading-edge stuff. What we expect for the March quarter is solid year-over-year revenue growth. And we expect supply constraints in the March quarter to be less than they were in the December quarter.

What the earnings report tells us

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Apple reported $34.63 billion in Q1 earnings ($2.10 per share) – an increase from $28.76 billion last year ($1.68 per share). Its revenue jumped 11% to $123.95 billion. According to FactSet, experts had forecast $1.90 of EPS on $119 billion in revenue.

Revenue saw YoY growth of 9.0% from iPhone, 24% from services, 25% from Mac, and 13% from other products – all significant ahead of analysts’ estimates. iPad revenue, however, tanked 14% to $7.25 billion, missing expectations for $8.18 billion.

Dan Ives’ take on Apple’s quarterly results

The American multinational said its gross margin climbed from 41.7% to 43.8%. On CNBC’s “Closing Bell”, Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives said:

To beat revenue by $5.0 billion given the chip shortage and then iPhone would’ve been another $6.0 billion beat if not for the chip shortage. Margins were strong across the board. This is beyond what bulls were hoping for; a life raft in a market storm. A huge quarter for Apple.

Like everybody else, CEO Cook admitted, Apple is also facing inflationary pressures. As per Loup Ventures’ Gene Munster, Apple could be a $250 stock.