Apple Inc. topped Wall Street’s expectations on earnings and revenue as it delivered its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings results today, but its stock wavered in extended trading after it reported yet another decline in sales in Greater China.

The iPhone maker reported earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation of $1.64 per share, just edging past the analyst consensus estimate of $1.60. Revenue for the period rose 6% from a year ago, to $94.93 billion, also just beating the Street’s target of $94.58 billion.

For the quarter, Apple delivered a net profit of $14.73 billion, down from $22.96 billion one year ago. The decrease was attributed to a onetime charge relating to a decision by the European Commission, which ordered Apple to pay $10.2 billion in back taxes to the Irish government.

Apple also published its full-year results for fiscal 2024, saying its total revenue just topped $391 billion, up 2% from a year ago, while its free cash pile now stands at $156.65 billion. Following the report, Apple’s stock was down 2% after-hours.

As always, the performance of the company’s iconic iPhones were the main subject of attention, and Apple said sales of the devices grew 6% in the quarter from the same period one year earlier. The company notably launched new iPhone models on Sept. 20, and the fourth quarter concluded one week later, meaning the report only provides limited data on the sales of its most advanced handsets to date.

In an interview with CNBC, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook (pictured) said sales of the iPhone 15 were stronger than the iPhone 14 in the preceding year’s quarter, while the iPhone 16 performed better than the iPhone 15.

The CEO added that the company is eagerly anticipating customer’s responses to Apple Intelligence, the new suite of artificial intelligence tools that are integrated with its flagship handsets. The features are being rolled out this week with the iOS 18.1 system update.

Apple’s strategy for AI has been focused on integrating the technology with the iOS operating system, as opposed to restricting it to certain devices or bundling it in a standalone application. One of its aims is to make life easier for users when performing daily tasks, such as editing emails. Some elements of Apple Intelligence will be exclusive to the iPhone 16 though, as it features a more advanced chipset. However, a lot of the features will work with the iPhone 15 Pro.

It’s notable that not all of the Apple Intelligence features are available, as the company is going for a phased rollout. That strategy has left some analysts wondering if the delay in certain features might delay iPhone upgrades, but Cook said the early sales data suggests that’s not the case.

“We’re getting great feedback from customers and developers already and a really early stat, which is only three days worth of data: Users are adopting iOS 18.1 at twice the rate that they adopted 17.1 in the year-ago quarter,” Cook told CNBC.

Looking at Apple’s other products, the iPad business unit showed the strongest growth of all, with revenue increasing by 8%, to $6.95 billion. That increase appears to stem from pent-up demand. Apple launched new iPad Pro models in May, after not updating the product at all in 2023.

In the Mac business, sales ticked up 2%, to $7.74 billion, in the quarter, which included what Apple terms back-to-school laptop sales. According to Cook, the sales growth was driven by the recently updated MacBook Air, which launched in May with a newer, more powerful chipset.

Apple’s services business continued to grow its importance, with sales up 12% from a year earlier, to $25 billion. The unit encompasses subscriptions for services such as iCloud, AppleCare warranties, Google Search revenue and commissions on app purchases. Despite the revenue increase, the unit fell just short of the analyst’s target of $25.1 billion.

The Other Products business, which covers the Apple Watch, AirPods headphones and HomePod speakers, saw sales decline 3%, to $9.04 billion, despite the launch of new Watch and AirPods products that debuted alongside the iPhone 16.

One sore spot for investors was the company’s performance in Greater China, which spans mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and is Apple’s third-largest sales region. There, the company is facing renewed competition from domestic companies like Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., and its revenue dropped to $15.03 billion, from $15.08 billion one year earlier.

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that Apple will be extremely encouraged by the strength of its iPhone sales in the quarter, which grew by almost the same amount in dollar terms as the services business. That’s good news, he said, because the iPhone is the main platform for Apple’s services, and more sales means a larger install base for the services.

“It’s too soon to say much about the iPhone 16 and if it’s a success or not, but what is interesting is that Apple grew more in Europe than in the Americas, which says that the age of hardware is more of a factor than the non-availability of Apple Intelligence features,” Mueller said. “Investors will be looking to see if that first, strong week of iPhone 16 sales is a sign of success, or just the result of legions of Apple die-hards snapping up the latest hardware, and the next quarter will tell.”

Apple declined to provide formal guidance for the current quarter, as it has done since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but on the call, finance chief Luca Maestri said the company expects to see “low to mid-single-digit sales” over the three-month period. He added that the company expects services revenue growth to be at the same rate as it has been for the past year, at around 12%.

The report revealed that Apple’s capital spending rose in the quarter by $2.91 billion, to $9.45 billion. That’s markedly lower than many of its megacap technology rivals, such as Microsoft Corp., Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., which have been investing billions of dollars into their AI infrastructure.

Apple doesn’t need nearly as much infrastructure to run its Apple Intelligence services, since it’s relying on third-party cloud services providers to handle many of those workloads, though it will use some internal data centers for certain more sensitive AI processes.

The company added that it spent $29 billion on share repurchases and dividends during the quarter.

Photo: iphonedigital/Flickr