Apple Results Suggest Stability After a Tough End to 2018

Apple reported holiday-quarter results and gave a forecast that together suggested the company’s performance has begun to stabilize after a punishing end to 2018, according to Bloomberg. While iPhone sales fell, revenue from other businesses, such as services and wearable devices, grew from a year earlier. The said fiscal second-quarter revenue will be between $55 billion and $59 billion.

The company had lost about a third of its market value since October on concern about a saturated smartphone market, rising Sino-American trade tension and an economic slowdown in China. Apple sales fell 27 percent in Greater China and now make up about 15 percent of total revenue. Earlier this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook warned that the company would miss its holiday quarter sales target, setting a low bar for results.

IPhone revenue dropped 15 percent in the quarter from a year earlier, but sales increased for all other product categories, the company said. Revenue from services grew 19 percent to $10.9 billion, Mac sales gained 8.7 percent to $7.4 billion and iPad revenue increased 17 percent to $6.7 billion. The company, for the first time, specified “wearables, home and accessories“ as a product category with sales of $7.3 billion, a 33 percent jump. Apple also disclosed the gross profit margin of the services division for the first time That came in at 63 percent.