Apple results top forecasts as iPhone, services lead strong quarterly sales

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Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares slipped into the red in after-hours trading Thursday even though the company topped fiscal fourth-quarter expectations led by strong sales of iPhones and services at the iconic consumer tech kingpin.

For the period ending September 30, Apple (AAPL) said it earned $1.29 a share on revenue of $90.1B. Wall Street analysts had previously forecast Apple (AAPL) to earn $1.27 a share on revenue of $88.8B. In the same period a year Apple (AAPL) earned $1.24 a share on sales of $83.4B.

In a statement, Apple (AAPL) Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said the company's results showed Apple's (AAPL) "ability to execute effectively in spite of a challenging and volatile macroeconomic backdrop.

As usual, the iPhone topped Apple's (AAPL) quarterly results, with revenue of $42.6B, a 9.5% increase over the fourth quarter of 2021. Services, which includes subscriptions to products such as Apple TV+, iCloud storage plans and Apple Music offerings, climbed by 5%, to $19.2B.

Apple (AAPL) Chief Executive Tim Cook said in a statement that the company was heading into the holiday season "with our most powerful [product] lineup ever." However, the company didn't immediately give an outlook for the quarter that is historically Apple's (AAPL) biggest sales period of every year.

Earlier this week, Apple (AAPL) said it would raise the price of its media service subscriptions from between $1 and $3 a month.