Apple Q4 financials: This is probably everything you need to know
The first earnings call with John Ternus as CEO, saw Apple set new Q4 records, as usual. But, because no one has time to go through an hour-long conference call, spreadsheets, and other analysis, I did it for you.
Here are some of the take-aways from Apple’s Q4.
Financial Highlights
- Q4 Fiscal 2026 Results: Net sales reached a September-quarter record of $114.5B (+11.7% YoY), driven by Products at $82.9B (+12.5%) and Services at $31.6B (+9.8%). Net income was $30.7B (+11.8%) with diluted EPS of $2.10 (+13.5%).
- Full-Year Fiscal 2026 Results: Record revenue of $478.8B (+15.1% YoY), net income of $132.2B (+18.1%),and diluted EPS of $8.98 (+20.0%).
- Margins & One-Offs: Q4 gross margin was 47.9% (vs. 47.2% YoY). Tariff refunds contributed ~1.0 percentage point to gross margin and $0.05 to Q4 EPS. Underlying margins decreased sequentially due to memory costs.
- Operating Cash Flow & Capital Returns: Generated $28.0B in Q4 operating cash flow ($145.1B full-year,+30%). Returned $28.0B to shareholders in Q4 ($24.0B buybacks, $3.9B dividends). Full-year returns totaled c.$102B ($86.4B buybacks, $15.7B dividends).
- Dividend: $0.27 per share, payable November 16 to shareholders of record as of November 12.
Performance highlights
- Segment Highlights (Q4):
- iPhone: $57.6B (+17% YoY), setting a September-quarter record; full-year total reached $254.1B (+21%).
- Services: All-time record $31.6B (+9.8% YoY) with records across video, cloud, payments, and advertising; over 1.5B paid subscriptions. Company confirmed a “September record” in music.
- Mac: $10.8B (+24% YoY), achieving highest-ever annual Mac sales and market share gains.
- iPad & Wearables/Home/Accessories: iPad fell to $6.2B (-10% YoY) and Wearables/Home/Accessories to $8.3B (-8% YoY), impacted by supply constraints and tough comparisons against prior-year launches.
- Regional Breakdown (Q4):
- Growth across most geographies: Greater China led at $17.5B (+21% YoY, +28% full-year), followed by Rest of Asia Pacific (+15%), Europe (+11.5%), and the Americas (+10.2%).
- India set an all-time revenue record.
- Japan was the sole region to decline (-1.4% YoY).
Financial bits and pieces
- Net Cash & Equity: Cash and marketable securities totaled ~$136.9B against total debt of ~$80.1B, expanding net cash to ~$56.8B (up from $33.8B prior year). Shareholders’ equity rose to $112.1B, returning retained earnings to positive territory.
- Inventory & Payables Build: Inventories surged to $14.5B (vs. $5.7B prior year) alongside accounts payable rising to $82.3B (vs. $69.9B), reflecting aggressive pre-launch inventory staging.
- Intangibles & Share Count: Intangible assets rose to $20.3B (vs. $11.1B prior year). Diluted shares outstanding dropped ~1.6% YoY to 14.53B.
- R&D Expansion: Q4 R&D jumped 32% YoY to $11.7B (bringing total Q4 Opex to $19.2B, +21%), causing operating income ($35.6B, +9.9%) to grow slower than revenue.
- Full-year R&D reached $45.8B (+32%).
Enterprise highlights
- Philippines Department of Education deploying 170,000 MacBook Neos;
- American Airlines deploying 37,000 iPhones and 25,000 iPads;
- Gap and Christie’s running local AI on Mac hardware;
- Vision Pro adopted in surgical workflows at Duke Health.
Guidance
- Revenue: Projected growth of 7%–10% YoY (expected best revenue quarter in company history),constrained by supply limits.
- Services Growth: Expected at 8%–9% YoY (impacted by FX and third-party licensing).
- Gross Margin: Guided to 45.0%–46.0% (down sequentially due to elevated memory costs and Siri AI rollout expenses).
- Opex & Tax Rate: Operating expenses guided to $20.4B–$20.8B; tax rate expected at ~17%. Assumes no expansion of current tariffs or macroeconomic downturn.
Did I miss anything? Let me know.
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