AppleAAPLShares rose only slightly in premarket trading on Monday after Foxconn, the world’s largest iPhone assembler, maintained its full-year forecast amid a surprise drop in October sales.
Taiwan-based Foxconn, arguably the most important company in Apple’s global supply chain, said October revenue fell 4.6% from last year to C$741.2 billion ($23 billion), but saw “significant” month-on-month gains ahead of the expected surge in demand. both the near-November ‘Singles’ Day’ shopping event in China and the start of Black Friday holiday shopping later this month in the United States.
The group, which is also facing a politically motivated tax audit following founder Terry Gou’s decision to run for president in Taiwan, added that its “outlook for significant growth in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter remains unchanged.” ” in a statement emailed to TheStreet. .
Foxconn will provide more details on its near-term outlook when it releases formal September quarter earnings on Nov. 14, but the upbeat tone should ease some of the investor concern tied to Apple’s weak late-season holiday revenue forecast. last week.
Apple said December quarter sales would likely hold steady from last year’s total of $117 billion, a forecast that fell short of Wall Street forecasts for a 5% gain and followed the fourth quarter. Consecutive sequential drop in revenue for the technology giant and major setbacks in Mac, iPad and Apple. Look at sales.
Group revenue fell 0.7% to $89.5 billion, just above the Wall Street consensus forecast of $89.3 billion, although iPhone sales surprised on the upside with a 2.8% rise and a total of 43,810 million dollars.
Earnings for the quarter rose 13.2% to $1.46 per share, driven mostly by strong services revenue (Apple’s highest-margin business) and a record overall total for its global installed user base.
Another notable area of weakness in Apple’s quarterly report came from China, where sales fell 2.5% from the same period a year earlier to $15.1 billion amid reports that Beijing has banned the use of iPhones by part of government employees and state-backed companies to support the launch of state technology group Huawei’s new Mate 60 phone.
But Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook struck an optimistic tone about the region’s prospects in his conference call with analysts, noting that a stronger U.S. dollar shaved nearly 6 percentage points off total sales in China, suggesting that Constant currency growth was positive heading into the Christmas season.
“Beyond that, if you look at different categories, the iPhone actually set a record in the September quarter in mainland China,” Cook said.
“On top of that, we had the four best-selling phones in urban China over the past year. I just took a trip there and couldn’t be more excited about the interactions I’ve had with customers, employees and others.”
Apple shares were marked little changed from Friday’s closing levels in pre-market trading and indicated an opening price of $176.67 each, a move that would leave the stock with a modest gain of $1. 8% during the last six months.
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