During this current phase of the quarterly earnings season, investors and shareholders are of course looking primarily at the numbers – sales, profits, and earnings per share.

What is often more important, however, is the outlook from companies for the new quarter, the half-year or the full fiscal year. It often depends on the rhetoric of the managers and executive officers to serve “pure wine” to shareholders on the one hand, while being careful enough so that they don’t turn away and possibly switch to other “vineyards” right away – a balancing act!

Investors in Apple’s numbers were torn So the crowd of investors was torn when Apple’s numbers were presented, because in the finished business quarter, the quarterly revenue fell by around 1% to 89.5 billion dollars, but the minus was 1% lower than expected.

In addition, Apple could really score points in terms of profit, which was almost 23 billion dollars, higher than in the previous year.

iPhone demand is recovering The focus was especially on the easing of iPhone demand, which grew by 2.8% to 43.8 billion dollars, after it looked rather “meagre” at the beginning of the year.

After all, the iPhone is the main driver of revenue in the giant corporation and regularly contributes almost half of the group’s turnover, giving the company the additional possibility to generate further profits through subscriptions, more storage capacity or music services.

Therefore, the main focus is also on the service level, to which the streaming service Apple+ belongs in particular, where revenues could be increased by almost 16% to 22.31 billion dollars.

New chips should boost MAC book sales Not everything is going so well with the MAC computers at the moment, here the revenue fell to only 7.6 billion dollars, a drop of almost 30%. In this respect, the cult giant from Cupertino has already followed up and is now offering MAC book Pro models with much more powerful chips to get the sales going again.

Ultimately, the Chinese market is not getting any easier either. Revenues declined here, including Taiwan and Hong Kong, by 2.5% to 15.1 billion dollars. This may of course also be related to the sanctions policy of the USA and China, which could also lead to further unpredictability in the future.

All in all, the figures were quite in order and offered little scope for objections. BUT, as already stated, numbers alone are often no longer enough for the investors, the outlook must also fit.

Outlook was the fly in the ointment Especially this, where we are now in the most lucrative quarter before Christmas, did not meet with approval. Because, so the tech corporation said in the subsequent press conference, the profit could remain the same compared to the previous year. So no positive surprises, no ambitious goals, ultimately no big leaps or gains.

That alone was enough to disappoint the growth fantasies of some investors and send the stock on a downward spiral after hours.

Well, that’s how it is on the stock exchange, if you want to find a hair in the soup, you will find one.

My conclusion for you
However, I am rather relaxed in this regard, knowing the market power, the cult and the innovation spirit around everything that has to do with the “apple”. So I rely on the fact that the Apple iPhone 15 will also generate good sales this year and will certainly be under many a Christmas tree – maybe even under yours. The next numbers will prove it.

In this sense, I still believe in the dynamics and resilience of the “apple”, which will continue to develop positively and steadily expand and secure its product portfolio. You should do the same and take a long-term approach to the stock.