Apple shareholders keep close eye on performance

When Apple reports results today, investors will seek insight into upcoming new iPhones and how the current flagship iPhone X is performing.

They also want executives’ latest thoughts on the growing trade dispute between the United States and China.

The California-based technology company is expected to announce fiscal third-quarter revenue of $52.3 billion (Dh192.08bn), according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That’s in line with the company’s recent forecast and translates to year-over-year revenue growth of about 15 per cent, the strongest for Apple’s June quarter since 2015.

Higher iPhone average selling prices, increased services revenue, and unit sales growth for the Apple Watch should drive the expansion, analysts say.

Apple sold about 41.8 million iPhones in the third quarter, up almost 2 per cent from a year earlier, according to Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C Bernstein. Because of the $1,000 iPhone X starting price, analysts on average are expecting iPhone revenue to grow about 17 per cent yearover-year, Mr Sacconaghi said in a recent note. He’s looking for an average iPhone price of $690, up from $606 in the yearago quarter.

Steady sales growth like this suggests consumers are still buying iPhones despite expectations that Apple, for the sixth year in a row, will revamp its smartphone line-up in or around September.

Investors and analysts will also be closely watching Apple’s fiscal fourth-quarter outlook. This is the period when new iPhones are often unveiled. Analysts see September quarter revenue of about $59.5bn, which would represent 15 per cent year-over-year growth. Apple’s fourth-quarter forecast will give clues to when the new iPhones will debut, according to Shannon Cross of Cross Research. Last year, the iPhone X was unveiled in November, later than usual.

The company plans new iPad Pros with iPhone X features this year. That could boost iPad sales in the fiscal fourth quarter and the upcoming holiday quarter, depending on when in 2018 the devices are upgraded.