Notes of interest from Apple’s third quarter 2020 earnings report – updated live

Apple has reported revenue of $59.7 billion for the third quarter of 2020, profoundly beating Wall Street estimates, in a quarter where the company continues to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall revenue for Apple is up 11% from Q3 2019, when it reported a record-setting $53.8 billion.

While normally Apple’s reported results would be compared against its forecast from the previous quarter , Apple declined to provide guidance in its Q2 2020 results for the first time in over two decades. At the time, Apple cited the first three weeks of the period, which included reduced demand and further retail issues caused from COVID-19, and the associated uncertainty of the entire situation as to why it would not provide revenue guidance on that occasion.

Despite the lack of guidance, analysts offered their own estimates, anticipating a revenue of $51.47 billion on average.

Participating in Thursday’s call will be Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri.

• At the same time as earnings, Apple announced a 4:1 stock split happening on August 24
• The last split was a 7:1 split six years ago – MW
• Revenue is up 10.9% year-over-year
• Gross margin is up 12.1%, operating expenses up 10.4%, operating income up 13.4%, net profit up 12%
• This is Apple’s best third quarter ever, and is greater than the 2014 holiday quarter – MW

Q3 2020 Apple Revenue and Net Profit

• Hardware net sales by dollar are up for every category of product that Apple sells.
• As of 4:56 PM Eastern Time, AAPL stock is up over $18 per share on the news to $402.87, after closing at $384.76
• Tim Cook: “What makes us proud as a company is not merely what we did, but how we did it.”
• Increase in iPhone sales in May and June attributable to stimulus, iPhone SE launch, and lift of shelter-in-place
• Cook: iPhone and Mac constrained across the entire quarter