Apple reports first quarterly revenue drop in more than a decade
Apple (AAPL) on Tuesday reported its first quarterly revenue decline since 2003, as the world's most valuable company sold fewer iPhones. The company's most popular product, iPhones represented more than two-thirds of revenue.
Apple reported second-quarter revenue of $50.6 billion on earnings per share of $1.90.
Analysts were expecting the tech giant to report revenue of $52 billion and earnings of $2 a share.
The company projected third-quarter revenue of $41 billion to $43 billion, also below analysts' estimates.
Apple sold more than 51.2 million iPhones in the first three months of the year, while tallying $10.5 billion in profit. The company sold 61 million iPhone in the year-earlier period.
Shares of Apple have fallen 18 percent over the last 12 months on increased concern that customers aren't upgrading their iPhones as much.
On Tuesday, the stock lost $8.30, or 8 percent, to $96.05 in after-hours trading following the earnings report. The shares declined 73 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $104.35 during the regular session.
Apple in January warned its quarterly earnings report would have revenue declining for the first time in more than a decade as sales of iPhones slowed.
Apple "is expected to account for 4.95 percent of all S&P 500 first-quarter 2016 operating earnings, even as it accounted for 3.37 percent of the market value at the end of first-quarter 2016," Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, wrote in emailed commentary. "Needless to say, Apple's EPS are key to the index, as well as many other companies and investors."
The company has increased its dividend in April for the last three years, Silverblatt noted. It's doing so again, hiking the quarterly payout by 10 percent.
A report out Saturday found Apple generated more than 40 percent of profits from Silicon Valley companies last year. The Mercury News' yearly ranking of the region's leading 150 public technology companies by revenue had Apple at the top of the heap with an estimated $235 billion in sales in 2015.
The Cupertino, California-based tech behemoth's sales were more than three times that of Google-parent Alphabet (GOOG).
Investors put the value of Apple at about $600 billion, a market capitalization of 2.6 times its 2015 sales.
Tuesday's earnings follow fiscal first-quarter earnings in January that topped forecasts, but still came in below anticipated levels for revenue and iPhone sales. At the time, Cook described the three-month period as having "a lot of great things happening in a turbulent environment."
In the first quarter of 2016, Cook said Apple tallied 14 percent year-over-year growth in China, its second-biggest market after the Americas, accounting for more than $18 billion in sales.
But some analysts have said the company faces competition from Chinese smartphone makers, and the battle could be even more uphill should Beijing opt to favor domestic companies against outsiders.
Last week, Chinese regulators blocked Apple mobile entertainment services.