(AOF) – Apple presented better than expected results, but warned that supply problems could cut its turnover by 4 to 8 billion dollars in the current quarter due to the Covid in China. The apple firm generated in the second quarter, ended at the end of March, a net profit of 25.01 billion dollars, or 1.52 dollars per share, against respectively 23.63 billion dollars and 1.40 per share, a year earlier. Earnings per share beat the Bloomberg consensus by 10 cents.
The turnover for its part increased by 8.6% to reach 97.28 billion dollars. It is also higher than market expectations: 94 billion dollars.
This outperformance, the Cupertino company (California) owes it to the success of its iPhone. Revenues from its star product exceeded expectations despite supply difficulties. It saw its sales rise 5.5% to $50.57 billion while analysts were targeting $49.2 billion.
Mac revenue rose 14.6% to $10.435 billion and iPad revenue fell 2% to $7.65 billion.
For their part, the services, which include in particular the App Store, iCloud and iTunes, saw their sales jump by 17.3% to reach 19.82 billion dollars.
Wearables, i.e. essentially connected watches, saw revenue growth of 1.1% to $8.81 billion.
In the current quarter, Apple is aiming for a gross margin of between 42% and 43% and solid annual growth, Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said during the press conference with analysts.
“Supply constraints caused by Covid-related disruptions and industry-wide silicon shortages are impacting our ability to meet customer demand for our products. We expect these constraints are in the range of $4 billion to $8 billion, which is significantly larger than what we experienced in the March quarter,” he said. The Covid-related disruptions are also having some impact on customer demand in China.
The board authorized a $90 billion increase to the existing share buyback program. The quarterly dividend was increased by 5% to 23 cents.
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The Middle East ESC
Still relatively unknown compared to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Gitex (Gulf Information Technology Exhibition) in Dubai has existed since 1981 and attracts around 100,000 visitors a year. Even if it wants to compete with the CES in Las Vegas, and the region is a very tech-savvy market, the Gitex remains, despite its internationalization, still a regional hub for technology. The CES makes it possible to cover the United States, North America and Europe at the same time, while the Gitex rather covers the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. In 2021 this event took place at the same time as the Universal Exhibition in Dubai. France was the second most represented country, behind Italy.
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