Autumn’s tech earnings season hasn’t been a good one for investors so far. A few outliers aside (looking at you, Microsoft ), Wall Street has reacted pretty negatively to the financial results from major tech players in the past week.
One big thing that’s upsetting investors is the negative free cash flow from giants like Google and Amazon, driven largely by capital expenditures on AI data centers. The impact of AI has also driven down the stock prices of Reddit and Intel after they announced earnings.
And today, it’s Apple’s turn to report its latest quarterly results. Here’s what to keep an eye out for.
Apple reports Q4 earnings after the closing bell
Today, the most valuable company in the world announces its latest quarterly results. iPhone maker Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) will reveal its fourth-quarter financials after the closing bell.
Apple’s Q4, which ended on September 30, also closes out its fiscal year. But it’s notable for another reason this year, too: it’s the first quarter in which Apple’s new CEO, John Ternus, ran the show—at least partly.
Ternus replaced longtime CEO Tim Cook at the beginning of September.
Historically, Apple’s Q4 is its most important—at least when it comes to product launches. It’s when Apple traditionally releases its new iPhones (albeit just a few weeks before the quarter ends).
But this year was a little different. Instead of launching the entire iPhone 18 family lineup during the quarter, Apple only announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. It’s saving its updated iPhone 18 and iPhone Air 2 for Q3 next year.
What to expect—and not to—from Apple’s Q4 earnings
Investors will want to know how much the new, staggered iPhone release schedule impacted iPhone sales for the quarter, so any word from Tenus or chief financial officer Kevan Parekh on September comparables to last year will likely be closely watched.
During Q4, the company also announced its first foldable, the iPhone Duo. However, that device did not go on sale until October, after the quarter ended.
That means the Duo had no impact on the company’s Q4 revenue. Still, given it’s Apple’s most radical iPhone redesign ever, investors will be looking for any hints from Apple’s leadership on how early sales of its foldable are going.
Apple will also likely give an update about the impact AI is having on its business. Unlike its Big Tech contemporaries, Apple has (it now appears, wisely) reframed from heavily investing in AI data centers, which is what has caused giants like Google and Amazon to post those negative free cash flows that have freaked investors out.
But AI-related costs are affecting the company—mainly through higher memory prices—and analysts will want an update on how those higher component costs are likely to affect Apple going forward.
But perhaps most importantly, investors will be keen to hear Apple’s guidance for its current Q1 2027. This is the quarter that will include Apple’s holiday sales—typically the biggest quarter of the year for Apple. Strong guidance could boost investor confidence and send the stock up after hours. Weaker guidance could have the opposite effect.
What Wall Street expects from Apple’s Q4
According to Bloomberg analyst consensus estimates ( via Yahoo Finance), Wall Street expects the following Q4 results:
Total revenue: $113.46 billion
EPS: $2.00
iPhone revenue: $56.48 billion
Services revenue: $31.58 billion
Mac revenue: $9.69 billion
Wearables revenue: $8.99 billion
iPad revenue: $6.83 billion
To put those two topline numbers into context, last year Apple reported $102.46 billion in total revenue for its Q4 2025 and an EPS of $1.85 for the same quarter.
Apple has been the best-performing Magnificent 7 stock this entire year and is largely seen as a safe haven from the AI trade thanks to the company’s relatively conservative approach to AI spending compared to its contemporaries.
For the year, AAPL stock is up nearly 27% as of Friday’s close. That’s compared to less than 10% for Nvidia, 8% for Microsoft, and just over 4% for Amazon. Alphabet (Google’s owner), Meta, and Tesla are all underwater around 11%, 11%, and 6.8% as of Friday’s close.
Recently, Apple became the most valuable company in the world, leapfrogging Nvidia and becoming only the second company ever to close with a market cap above $5 trillion.
Apple’s financial call is expected at 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET today.
