Apple Earnings: Q4 Revenue Beats at $114.5 Billion in John Ternus' First Report, AAPL Stock Little Changed

Apple topped Wall Street’s expectations for its fiscal fourth quarter on Monday, reporting $114.5 billion in revenue in the first earnings report since John Ternus succeeded Tim Cook as CEO on Sept. 1. The stock, however, was little changed in extended trading after the company’s outlook for the December quarter came in below what analysts had penciled in, according to CNBC.

This article is for general information only and is not financial advice.

Apple earnings report: the headline numbers

Apple said revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 26 rose 12% from a year earlier, a September-quarter record. Diluted earnings per share were $2.10, up 14%, and the company said that figure included a favorable impact of 5 cents from tariff refunds.

Here is how the results compared with analyst estimates compiled by LSEG, as reported by CNBC:

Apple also said fiscal 2026 revenue reached an all-time record of $479 billion. The board declared a dividend of 27 cents a share, payable Nov. 16 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 12.

AAPL stock after the bell

CNBC reported that Apple shares fell after the company said it expects total revenue to grow 7% to 10% year over year in the December quarter, while analysts polled by LSEG had been looking for growth of about 11.4%. Overall, the stock was little changed in extended trading. Investing.com described the shares as “seesawing” after hours.

During the regular session, Apple closed nearly 2% lower ahead of the report, CNBC said, as tech stocks broadly slipped. Going into the release, the shares were up 27% this year as of Friday’s close, according to CNBC, making Apple one of the strongest megacap tech names of 2026. Apple and Nvidia were neck and neck as the world’s most valuable company, at around $4.91 trillion each, CNBC noted.

iPhone, Mac and China

The iPhone remained just over half of Apple’s sales. iPhone revenue rose about 17.5% to $57.58 billion, Investing.com reported, a fourth straight quarter of double-digit growth. That figure included only about eight days of iPhone 18 Pro sales, and none from the new foldable iPhone Duo, which went on sale Oct. 23, after the quarter ended.

The Mac was the fastest-growing product line, up nearly 24% to $10.79 billion. Ternus credited the low-cost MacBook Neo and the MacBook Pro. Greater China revenue grew 21% to $17.53 billion, CNBC reported, on iPhone and Mac sales.

The weak spots were the iPad, which fell more than 10%, and Wearables, Home and Accessories, which declined nearly 8%. Ternus pointed to supply constraints and a tough comparison with last year for the iPad.

Services growth and gross margin

Services revenue hit an all-time high, but growth of 9.8% was the slowest since 2022, according to CNBC. That matters because the segment, which includes App Store fees, iCloud and AppleCare, carries high profit margins.

Gross margin was 47.9%, down from 50.1% the previous quarter, and Apple said about 1 percentage point of that came from tariff refunds. The company has been dealing with a global shortage and rising prices for memory and flash storage, and it raised prices across its lineup in June, including $100 on iPhones. “We saw higher memory costs as compared to the June quarter,” Ternus told CNBC.

Apple earnings call: what Ternus said

Monday’s call, which started at 5 p.m. ET, was Ternus’ first as CEO. In Apple’s release he called fiscal 2026 the company’s “best fiscal year ever” and said the iPhone Duo is “the most transformational iPhone since the original.”

On artificial intelligence, Ternus said Apple has a “lot of opportunities” to make money from its updated Siri, pointing to hardware upgrades as one example. CNBC also noted that Apple spent just $2.24 billion on capital expenditures in the quarter, far below the AI spending of its megacap peers.

Apple earnings date: why Monday was unusual

Apple usually reports on a Thursday. CNBC said the last time the company reported on a Monday was April 27, 2015.

What to watch next

Investors will look for early signs of iPhone Duo demand and supply in the December quarter, along with whether memory costs keep pressuring margins. CNBC noted reports that the Duo can crack under normal use, which Apple has said affected a “small number” of devices. Analyst views remain split: Bank of America kept a Buy rating before the report, while Barclays stayed underweight, CNBC said.