Can Apple return to growth and guide for continued momentum?

With Apple shares rising more than 40% over the past year, investor expectations have increased from they were a year ago. Cupertino now needs to deliver for investors with a return to growth. Even more, Daniel Sparks writes for The Motley Fool, Apple guidance needs to show that its growth rate can accelerate.
Daniel Sparks for The Motley Fool:
‎

[T]op-line growth for fiscal Q1 is likely. The average analyst forecast calls for fiscal first-quarter revenue to increase 1% year over year. Though this may not seem like much of an improvement, investors should keep in mind that the quarter will have one fewer week than the same quarter last year.
Management noted in the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call that this eliminates an estimated 7 percentage points of the quarter’s revenue. If analysts are anticipating a return to growth, even with these headwinds, there’s clearly an expectation for Apple to start getting back to a top-line growth profile deserving of its valuation…
[I]nvestors will not only be watching Apple’s fiscal first-quarter financial momentum when the company reports earnings next week, but will also be eyeing management’s guidance. Investors are likely hoping management guides for even faster revenue growth in fiscal Q2 than it reports in fiscal Q1.
The consensus analyst forecast currently calls for fiscal Q2 revenue growth of 1.6% year over year. Investors should look for management to guide for around 2% year-over-year revenue growth or better in fiscal Q2.

‎
MacDailyNews Note: Apple will release its Q124 (holiday quarter) results on Thursday, February 1, 2024 just after market close (right around 1:30pm PT / 4:30pm ET) and, following that, the company’s conference call to discuss first fiscal quarter results and business updates will take place at 2:00pm PT / 5:00pm ET.
As always, we’ll post the results as soon as they are released and we’ll cover Apple’s conference call with live notes.
‎
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
The post Can Apple return to growth and guide for continued momentum? appeared first on MacDailyNews.