Shares of Apple (AAPL) gained in after-hours trading after the tech giant reported earnings for its third quarter of Fiscal Year 2024. Earnings per share came in at $1.40, which beat analysts’ consensus estimate of $1.35 per share. Sales increased by 5% year-over-year, with revenue hitting $85.78 billion. This beat analysts’ expectations of $84.38 billion.
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The iPhone generated $39.3 billion in sales, while iPad and Services revenues contributed $7.16 billion and $24.21 billion, respectively. Additionally, the Wearable, Home, and Accessories segment recorded revenues of $8.1 billion, while Mac sales hit $7.01 billion.
During the third quarter, AAPL returned over $32 billion to shareholders. Impressively, it returned almost $81.3 billion to shareholders during the past nine months. Dividends made up $11.43 billion, while buybacks made up the remaining $69.866 billion. Apple has regularly repurchased its shares in each of the most recent quarters (as demonstrated in the image below).
Chinese Sales Struggle
There have been many worries about Apple’s performance in China lately. Indeed, stiffening competition, along with economic headwinds, have caused the firm’s sales in the country to drop by 6% year-over-year to $14.72 billion. Nevertheless, the third quarter results in China represented “an acceleration from the first half of the year,” according to CEO Tim Cook. China is a very important market for Apple, as it makes up almost a fifth of its sales.
Is AAPL Stock a Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on AAPL stock based on 25 Buys, nine Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 14% year-to-date increase, the average AAPL price target of $240.61 per share implies 9.47% upside potential. However, it’s worth noting that estimates will likely change following today’s earnings report.
