According to the financial report, in the first quarter of this year, Apple Inc created the best quarterly performance of non-holiday places in the more than 40 years since its establishment. But even if earnings and revenues grew more strongly than Wall Street expected, Apple Inc admitted that he could not get rid of the continuing supply chain disruptions caused by the epidemic and the negative impact of the increased conflict between Russia and Ukraine. These negatives will continue to put pressure on the company's performance after a marked slowdown in growth in the first quarter compared with the end of last year.

Luca Maestri, chief financial officer of Apple Inc, commented on the first-quarter results, saying that revenue from the services business hit an all-time high in the same quarter, while revenue from iPhone, Mac computers, wearables, household products and accessories all hit a new high in the same period in the first quarter. The strong operating performance brought the company more than $28 billion in operating cash flow in the quarter, allowing the company to return nearly $27 billion to shareholders in the quarter.

Apple Inc's board of directors announced that it would pay a cash dividend of 23 cents per common share, raising the dividend by 5% on May 12, and authorized the company to expand its current share buyback program by $90 billion.

Apple Inc has yet to provide quarterly guidance, but issued a warning on a conference call after the earnings report. Apple Inc CEO Cook said that he could not be left alone during the COVID-19 epidemic, the supply chain disorder and the war between Russia and Ukraine. Maestri said that a variety of challenges in the second quarter, including supply constraints related to the outbreak, could reduce sales by as much as $8 billion, and demand in the Chinese market was also affected by the epidemic.

Before the announcement of the results, Apple Inc's share price, which closed up more than 4 per cent, had fallen more than 1 per cent in after-hours trading. After the announcement of the results, Apple quickly pulled up and rose after trading, rising by more than 3 per cent at one point. During the conference call, the share price fell again, falling as much as 6% after hours.

The month-on-month decline in revenue and profit is still higher than expected and maintains a gross profit margin of more than 40%.

After US stock market trading on Thursday, April 28, Eastern time, Apple Inc announced that in the second quarter of fiscal year 2022, that is, the first quarter of the Gregorian calendar, operating income and profit fell by more than 20% compared with the previous quarter, and the growth rate was still higher than market expectations. maintain a high gross margin of more than 40%, and revenue hit an all-time high:

• First-quarter revenue was $97.278 billion, up 8.59% from a year earlier and down more than 21% from a record high in the fourth quarter of last year. Analysts expect an increase of 4.9% to $93.98 billion and 11% in the fourth quarter of last year.

• First-quarter diluted earnings per share (EPS) was $1.52, up 8.57 per cent from a year earlier and down 27.6 per cent from a record EPS in the fourth quarter of last year. Analysts expect an increase of 2.1 per cent to $1.43 and 25 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.

• Gross profit in the first quarter rose 12% year-on-year to $42.559 billion, gross margin 42.5%, and analysts expected 39.8%.

IPhone revenue exceeds expectations by more than 5% service revenue continues to hit new highs and soars by double digits

From a product-by-product point of view, the revenue growth rate of Apple Inc's core hardware iPhone far exceeded market expectations, the decline in iPad revenue was significantly lower than expected, and the service business maintained a double-digit surge, continuing to set a new record for a single quarter. Only the revenue of wearable devices and accessories was lower than expected, but maintained a high growth rate of more than 10%.

• IPhone recorded net sales of $50.57 billion in the first quarter, up about 5.5 per cent from a year earlier and down more than 29 per cent from the record high set in the fourth quarter of last year. Analysts expect an increase of 2.5 per cent to $49.16 billion and 9 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.

• Mac revenue in the first quarter was $10.435 billion, up 14.6 per cent from a year earlier and 3.8 per cent lower than the record high set in the fourth quarter of last year. Analysts expect it to rise 1.4 per cent to $9.23 billion and 25 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.

• IPad revenue in the first quarter was $7.664 billion, down 2.06% from a year earlier and up 5.7% from the fourth quarter of last year. Analysts expect it to fall 7.9% to $7.19 billion and 14% in the fourth quarter of last year.

• Revenue from wearable devices, household products and accessories was $8.806 billion in the first quarter, up 12.4% from a year earlier, and analysts expect a 14.6% year-on-year increase to $8.98 billion and a 13% year-on-year increase in the fourth quarter of last year.

The services business, which includes Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple Music and iCloud subscriptions, recorded revenue of $19.821 billion in the first quarter, the fifth consecutive quarter of record high, with analysts expecting $19.78 billion.

Service revenue rose 17.3 per cent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the slowest pace since the third quarter of 2020, but slightly higher than analysts expected growth of 17 per cent and 24 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.

The growth of income in China has slowed significantly, and the Asia-Pacific region excluding China and Japan has changed from growth to decline.

Apple Inc's performance varied in different regions in the first quarter. Compared with the previous quarter, income growth in the American market was stronger, the decline in Japan was significantly moderated, and in China and Europe, income growth slowed significantly. Income in the Asia-Pacific region outside China and Japan, such as India, has changed from growth to decline. Of all the regions, only in the Americas has income growth outpaced total income growth, reflecting the outstanding performance of the United States.

• Revenue in Greater China reached US $18.343 billion in the first quarter, up nearly 3.5% from the same period last year, and nearly 21% in the fourth quarter of last year.

• Revenue in the Americas was $40.882 billion in the first quarter, up 19.2% from the same period last year, and more than 11% in the fourth quarter of last year.

• European market revenue in the first quarter was 23.287 billion US dollars, up 4.6% from the same period last year, and nearly 9% in the fourth quarter of last year.

• Japanese market revenue in the first quarter was 7.724 billion US dollars, down 0.23% from the same period last year, and 14% in the fourth quarter of last year.

• Revenue from the Asia-Pacific market outside China and Japan in the first quarter was US $7.742 billion, down 6.65% from the same period last year and up 19% in the fourth quarter of last year.

Second-quarter revenue may be as much as $8 billion lower than the same period last year due to the epidemic and high inflation will affect performance.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic in Europe and the United States in March 2020, Apple Inc has not released quarterly performance guidelines on the grounds that the future is full of uncertainty. The guidelines for the second quarter of this year were not disclosed on Thursday, and there has been a lack of guidance for nine consecutive quarters.

In a conference call after the fourth-quarter results in January, Apple Inc said the company's growth had been adversely affected by "severe supply constraints". Management expects these challenges to persist in the first quarter of this year, but the negative impact will be smaller than in the fourth quarter of last year, and supply chain shortages will improve at the beginning of this year.

In a conference call after the results on Thursday, Apple Inc executives said the company was not immune from the COVID-19 epidemic, supply chain disorders and conflicts between Russia and Ukraine. They referred again to the epidemic and supply-side impact, as well as the negative impact of Russia and Ukraine and the expected high inflation:

The epidemic is affecting the needs of some consumers. Current second-quarter revenue will be affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, which could reach $4 billion to $8 billion.

At a time when the West is imposing sanctions on Russia, Apple Inc's withdrawal from the Russian market will also have a negative impact on second-quarter performance growth.

The problem of inflation definitely has an impact on the company's performance to some extent. Although the first quarter sales performance in the United States is good, but definitely see many signs of inflation, Apple Inc and is closely monitoring the price situation.

Apple Inc said Mac computers were suppressed by supply chain disruptions and silicon problems caused by the COVID-19 epidemic. Apple Inc's supply chain has always been resilient, but chip manufacturing is still a problem.

When asked how to adjust Apple Inc's supply according to the current environment, Apple Inc executives said that chip production / capacity could be expanded in the United States. Mr. Cook declined to comment on how long the chip shortage will last.

In terms of acquisitions, Cook said that although Apple Inc has not made many major acquisitions so far, he does not rule out the possibility of implementing major mergers and acquisitions in the future. Apple Inc will continue to promote small-scale acquisitions in areas such as intellectual property rights.