Apple's fourth-quarter financial report exceeded Wall Street's expectations for revenue and earnings per share, but a one-time fee paid by the company in Europe resulted in a significant decline in net income.

Apple's stock price fell 2% in extended trading on Thursday.

The following is a comparison of Apple's quarterly performance as of September 28 with the general expectations of LSEG:

Earnings per share: adjusted $1.64, expected $1.60

Revenue: $94.93 billion, expected $94.58 billion

iPhone revenue: $46.22 billion, expected $45.47 billion

Mac revenue: $7.74 billion, expected $7.82 billion

iPad revenue: $6.95 billion, expected to be $7.09 billion

Other products revenue: $9.04 billion, expected to be $9.21 billion

Service revenue: $24.97 billion, expected to be $25.28 billion

Gross margin: 46.2%, expected to be 46.0%

In this quarter, Apple paid a one-time income tax expense of $10.2 billion to settle a long-running case dating back to 2016 involving the way the company handled taxes in Ireland.

The company does not provide official performance guidance, but executives usually disclose their views on current quarter performance during conference calls with analysts.

Apple's net income for the quarter was $14.73 billion, or $0.97 per share, down from $22.96 billion, or $1.47 per share, in the same period last year. Adjusted earnings per share for Apple increased by 12% year-on-year after excluding one-time tax expenses.

Apple reported sales of $391.04 billion for the entire fiscal year, an increase of about 2% from 2023. Revenue for the quarter in September increased by 6%. The company's current cash reserve is $156.65 billion.

iPhone's overall revenue increased by 6%, which is the first positive sign of the strong performance of iPhone 16 in the market. Apple's latest device was launched on September 20th, giving Apple about a week of new product sales time in this quarter. It remains Apple's most important product, accounting for nearly 49% of the company's total sales.

Apple's CEO Tim Cook stated that the sales of iPhone 15 were stronger than the previous year's 14, and 16 was stronger than 15.

Cook mentioned that Apple is very excited about Apple Asia Vets, an artificial intelligence system for iPhone and Mac computers, which started rolling out this week as part of the iOS 18.1 update.

Cook said: "We have received very good feedback from users and developers. This is very early data, only three days' data: the adoption rate of iOS 18.1 is twice that of 17.1 at the same time last year."

Among all Apple hardware product lines, iPad business saw the strongest growth, with sales increasing by 8% to $6.95 billion. Some sales came from pent-up demand. After not releasing a new iPad throughout 2023, Apple launched new iPad Pro and Air models in May this year.

Apple's Mac business revenue this quarter increased by 2% year-on-year to $7.74 billion, including sales of back-to-school laptops. This growth was driven by sales of Apple's MacBook Air, which received a new chip update this spring.

Apple's services business—including online subscription services like iCloud, Google search revenue, and Apple hardware's AppleCare warranty services—remains a strong force, with annual sales increasing by 12% to nearly $25 billion. However, Apple's service revenue fell short of LSEG's general expectations.

The company categorizes the sales of AirPods headphones, HomePod speakers, and Apple Watch under 'other products' or 'wearable devices.' This division's revenue came in below expectations, at $9.04 billion, a 3% year-on-year decrease. The company introduced new models of Apple Watch, AirPods, and iPhones in this quarter.

Apple stated that the company spent $29 billion on share buybacks and dividends in this quarter.

Apple wrapped up a busy week for top technology companies. Driven by cloud business growth, Alphabet reported better-than-expected performance on Tuesday. Microsoft issued disappointing financial forecasts on Wednesday, leading to the stock's most severe sell-off in two years, while Meta exceeded expectations but warned that infrastructure spending would significantly increase next year. Amazon announced strong growth in its AWS business.