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October 30, 2021
5 minutes read

Earnings: Supply Issues Lag Apple’s Fiscal Q4 Sales

Tech giant Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has released its earnings report for the quarter ended September 25, 2021. It performed strongly…

Tech giant Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has released its earnings report for the quarter ended September 25, 2021. It performed strongly but acknowledged a revenue lag, which it blamed on supply constraints.

Apple fell short of analyst expectations with its latest earnings report, as CEO Tim Cook blamed the fall on supply chain pressures affecting the production of iPhones, iPads, and Macs. It appears that there was much more demand for Apple gadgets than the company could fulfill in the quarter, hence affecting its short-term numbers but signaling good prospects for the long-term.

Apple brought in $83.4bn in revenue for the quarter. It was a quarterly record but still fell short of broad Wall Street expectations. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected on average $84.9bn in revenue for the period.

As usual, the iPhone contributed the lion’s share of Apple’s sales, $39bn in the quarter, up 47% year-over-year. The Mac and the iPad followed with $9.2bn and $8.3bn, respectively. iPad revenue was up 21% year-over-year, while Mac sales stayed almost flat over the same period.

Net income for the quarter was $20.6bn, up 62% year-over-year.

While these were solid numbers, Apple acknowledged it could have done even better. Talking with CNBC, CEO Tim Cook estimated that $6bn of revenue was left off the table due to supply constraints affecting its production. “The supply constraints were driven by the industry-wide chip shortages that have been talked about a lot, and COVID-related manufacturing disruptions in Southeast Asia,” he said.

Despite the constraints, Apple is nonetheless still on a tear. It declared $366bn in revenue and a $95bn net income for the twelve months trailing September, a massive record for the company.

Apple unveiled a new lineup of the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch last month, and furthermore unveiled a new MacBook Pro and AirPods this month. Demand for these new products, particularly the iPhone and MacBook Pro is expected to lift up Apple sales in the forthcoming year.