Apple posts record $114.5 billion quarter, then warns of slower growth

A company picks its own financial year. Apple's ends in late September. So its fiscal fourth quarter covers roughly late June to September 26, 2026.

Apple also announced results for the full year, which ended with the same quarter, so the numbers cover twelve months of selling. This is the first set of results with John Ternus as CEO, and he used the word "record" a lot.

Here is what Apple reported for the quarter, next to the same quarter a year earlier:

Gross margin is the money left after paying what it cost to make the products and run the services. As a share of revenue, it was 47.9%.

Earnings per share (EPS, the profit divided across every share of stock) came to $2.10, up 14%.

Here is the split by product, using Apple's own explanations for the weak spots:

• iPhone: revenue up 17%, a record for a September quarter.
• Mac: revenue up 24%.
• iPad: revenue down 10%. Apple blames supply constraints, which means it couldn't get enough parts or finished units, and a hard comparison with last year's launch.
• Wearables, Home and Accessories: down 8%, against a strong year-ago launch of the Watch SE 3 and AirPods Pro 3.

Ternus called the iPhone Duo "the most transformational iPhone since the original." The foldable phone started at $1,999 when pre-orders opened in October, so most of its sales land in the next quarter.

Services means everything Apple sells that isn't a gadget: the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, iCloud and Apple TV. Think of it as the subscription and fees side of the business.

By the numbers: Services brought in $31.6 billion, about 10% more than a year ago. Apple calls it an all-time high. It also costs Apple far less to deliver. Services cost about $7.6 billion to run, against $52.1 billion of costs for Products.

CFO Kevan Parekh said Apple's fiscal 2026 was its biggest ever. Revenue reached $478.8 billion, up from $416.2 billion the year before. That's about 15% more.

In the quarter alone, Apple made about $28 billion in operating cash flow. That's the cash its business produces from everyday operations. It returned about $28 billion to shareholders through dividends and stock buybacks.

Apple also said its installed base is at an all-time high. The installed base is the number of Apple devices people are actively using. It grew across every major product category and region.

Apple's full-year numbers show the same pattern as the quarter. Here is fiscal 2026 next to fiscal 2025, from Apple's financial statements:

Profit before taxes for the quarter alone was $30.7 billion, up from $27.5 billion a year earlier.

Over the full year, Apple generated $145.1 billion in operating cash flow, up from $111.5 billion. It spent most of that returning money to investors.

• Buybacks: $86.4 billion on repurchasing its own stock, down from $90.7 billion the year before.
• Dividends: $15.7 billion paid out.
• Factories and equipment: $9.0 billion, down from $12.7 billion.

A buyback is when a company buys its own shares from the market. That leaves fewer shares in circulation. Apple's share count used for earnings math fell from about 14.82 billion to about 14.57 billion in the quarter. Fewer shares means each remaining share gets a bigger slice of profit.

The catch: investors didn't just read the press release. They also listened to the call with analysts, and the stock reacted to it.

Apple's shares ended the regular trading session down 1.83%. After the results came out, they first climbed about 0.5% to $340.00. Then, as executives spoke, the price fell to $323.33, which is 4.43% below Monday's close.

Shares recovered some of that and finished after-hours trading at $328.81, down 2.81%. After-hours trading happens when the regular market is closed, and it doesn't always predict what happens the next day. Markets reopen Tuesday.

On the call, Ternus, Parekh and COO Sabih Khan answered questions from analysts. They covered rising memory costs, recent price increases on hardware, and supply constraints, including ones affecting the iPhone Duo.

Memory is the chips that let a phone or computer hold apps and data while it works. When those get more expensive, devices get more expensive to build.

The outlook for the holiday quarter was mixed:

• Revenue: Apple expects its highest quarterly revenue ever.
• Growth: slower than the year before.
• Profit margins: lower.
• Supply: continued shortages of some Mac and iPad models.

In short, big sales, but a thinner slice of profit from each one. Apple didn't give a smaller number to explain that. It only described the direction: lower margins.

Tariffs are taxes a government charges on imported goods. Apple got refunds on some of those this quarter. The refunds added about 1 percentage point to the gross margin and $0.05 to earnings per share.

That's useful to know. It means part of the quarter's profit came from a one-time refund and not from selling more devices.

Apple's board declared a cash dividend of $0.27 per share. A dividend is a small cash payment to people who own the stock. It's payable on November 16, 2026, to anyone who owns shares as of the close of business on November 12.

Apple also held its earnings call at 2:00 p.m. PT on Monday, and a replay stays on its investor site for about two weeks.

In real life If you're thinking of buying a new Mac or iPad as a holiday gift, order early. Apple itself says some models will stay hard to find, and hardware prices have already gone up.

• Gifts may be scarce: Apple expects continued Mac and iPad shortages through the holidays, so popular models could sell out or ship late.
• Prices may stay high: executives discussed rising memory costs and recent price increases, so don't count on discounts.
• Your iPhone is still the star: iPhone revenue grew 17%, and the new foldable iPhone Duo only began to show up in these results.
• Your stock app may jump around: if you own Apple shares, remember that after-hours moves can reverse when the market reopens.