What to expect from Apple's Q2 2024 earnings on May 2

Apple confirmed on Thursday that it will be holding its second-quarter earnings call on May 2. The call, which will see CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri explaining the details of its results, will take place at 5 p.m. Eastern, following the release of the results themselves at approximately 4:30pm EDT.

Last Quarter: Q1 details

Historically the biggest quarter in the year for Apple, the Q1 2024 results benefit from being the first period following the launch of the iPhone 15 generation, as well as the extremely lucrative holiday shopping period.

It is also the first full quarter for new M3 Mac models including the updated 14-inch MacBook Pro, 16-inch MacBook Pro, and the 24-inch iMac. The Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2, and AirPods Pro 2 also enjoyed their first full quarter of release.

For the quarter, Apple reported revenue of $119.58 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2.1%, with an earnings per share of $2.18 up from $1.88 in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue derived from iPhone grew 6% year-on-year from $65.8 billion to $69.7 billion. Mac revenue rose marginally from $7.74 billion to $7.78 billion, while iPad revenue dropped 25.3% from $9.4 billion to $7.02 billion.

Wearables, Home, and Accessories were also down from $13.48 billion to 11.95 billion. The ever-reliable Services arm saw continued growth, with its $23.117 billion revenue a jump of 11.3%.

During the call, Maestri mentioned Apple generated nearly $40 billion in operating cash flow, and returned almost $27 billion to shareholders.

Wall Street forecasts before the results expected Apple to report revenue at $108 billion or $126 billion, depending on which consensus report was read.

Year-Ago Quarter: Q2 2023

The second-quarter results for 2023, the quarter that analysts will directly compare against the inbound Q2 2024 results, involved a bit of shrinkage for Apple. Raking in $94.3 billion in revenue, the figure was down from the Q2 2022 result of $97.28 billion.

At the time, Apple set an earnings per share of $1.52, the same as Q2 2022's results.

The iPhone results were good, growing from $50.6 billion in Q2 2022 to $51.3 billion, while iPad went down from $6.7 billion to $7.6 billion. Mac revenue dipped more, from $10.4 billion to $7.2 billion.

Wearables, Home, and Accessories managed a minor contraction from $8.8 billion to $8.76 billion. Services maintained its growth, up from $19.8 billion to $20.9 billion.

What happened in Q2 2024

With Apple's holiday revenue bump largely over with, the Q2 results usually depend on more normalized sales of its primary product lines. That said, Apple did still introduce new products during the period.

In early February, the Apple Vision Pro finally reached retail. A whole new platform for Apple, the headset offers Spatial Computing via a mixed reality interface, and launched with considerable fanfare.

While the launch was loud and the pricetag high, the relatively low production levels of the Apple Vision Pro relative to other product categories means it probably won't make much of an impact on the financial figures. That said, it won't stop analysts from asking Apple's leadership about its progress so far.

Apple also brought out updates to the MacBook Air line, bringing them up to the M3 Apple Silicon chip. Again, launched extremely late in the period, it won't make that much of a difference, though the November MacBook Pro and iMac refreshes will have more impact.

It is probable that analysts will have an interest in the US Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit against Apple, as well as Europe's implementation of the Digital Markets Act.