Slow iPhone sales hurt Apple

Article Excerpt

APPLE INC. $190 is still a hold. The company (Nasdaq symbol AAPL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 15.3 billion; Market cap: $2.9 trillion; Price-to-sales ratio: 7.8; Dividend yield: 0.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.apple.com) gets about half of its revenue from iPhone sales. The other half comes from sales of its Mac computers, iPad tablets and other products. Apple’s overall revenue in its fiscal 2024 second quarter, ended March 30, 2024, fell 4.3%, to $90.75 billion from $94.84 billion a year earlier. Higher sales of Mac computers (up 3.9%) and services such as music streaming (up 14.2%) offset declines in iPhones (down 10.5%), iPads (down 16.7%) and wearables (down 9.6%). Overall earnings also fell 2.2%, to $23.64 billion from $24.16 billion. However, due to fewer shares outstanding, per-share earnings rose 0.7%, to $1.53 from $1.52. Apple just added $110.0 billion to its share repurchase authorization. It can now buy back up to $140.1 billion of its shares (there are no time limits for…