Apple reports fiscal Q4 revenue of $114.5 billion, up 12%, in John Ternus' first earnings report as CEO

Apple reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $114.5 billion, up 12% from a year earlier, in its first earnings report since John Ternus became CEO on Sept. 1, according to its earnings release, which it also filed as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K. The quarter ended Sept. 26. Apple labeled its financial statements unaudited. Apple said diluted earnings per share were $2.10, up 14%, including a favorable $0.05 from tariff refunds, and that gross margin was 47.9%, including a favorable impact of about 1 percentage point from tariff refunds. Net income was $30.711 billion, and Apple said it generated $28 billion in operating cash flow.

CNBC reported, citing LSEG estimates, that analysts expected earnings per share of $1.99 and revenue of $113.39 billion, with a gross margin of 47.5%.

Apple’s financial statements showed iPhone revenue of $57.583 billion, up 17%; Mac of $10.792 billion, up 24%; iPad of $6.229 billion, down 10%; wearables, home and accessories of $8.300 billion, down 8%; and services of $31.573 billion, up 10%. The percentage changes are AI Tech Daily’s calculations from Apple’s tables. CNBC, citing LSEG, put the estimates at $56.54 billion for iPhone, $9.61 billion for Mac, $6.7 billion for iPad and $9.06 billion for wearables, home and accessories.

Apple’s Greater China net sales were $17.539 billion, up 21% from $14.493 billion a year earlier. CNBC noted that the region includes the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong. CNBC’s report gave no estimate for the region, and the estimates other outlets cite differ: StreetInsider cited a Visible Alpha estimate of $18.58 billion, and Business Insider said China revenue of $17.54 billion missed analysts’ estimates of $18.75 billion.

Ternus said on Monday that Apple has a “lot of opportunities” to monetize Siri AI, CNBC reported. “One example is on the hardware side, right?” Ternus said. “It offers a compelling reason for upgrading or switching.” CNBC said Apple released the updated Siri AI during the quarter as a free upgrade for iPhones new enough to support it.

Apple’s release did not include an outlook for the December quarter. CNBC reported that Apple said on its earnings call that it expected total company revenue to grow between 7% and 10% year over year in the December quarter. CNBC also reported that Apple forecast December-quarter gross margin of 45% to 46%, below the 46.3% average analyst estimate from LSEG, and that analysts polled by LSEG had expected revenue growth of 6.1%.

Apple said on Oct. 31, in a release on its China newsroom, that the first Apple Intelligence features for China will reach users with iOS 27.3 in December, with a developer beta starting Nov. 4. It said Alibaba’s Qwen will be available in Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence, and that the update does not include Siri AI or the other next-generation features announced at WWDC 2026.

Apple’s release table showed research and development spending of $11.73 billion, up 32% from $8.87 billion.

Apple reports fiscal Q4 revenue of $114.5 billion, up 12%, in John Ternus’ first earnings report as CEO

Sources