Apple Q4 2026 Earnings: Revenue and iPhone Beat in John Ternus's First Report

Apple reported its fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 results after the market closed on November 2, the first under new CEO John Ternus. Revenue came in at $114.48 billion and earnings per share at $2.10, both above Wall Street's estimates, with iPhone and Mac beating too. Greater China missed. The stock, which had already slipped 1.83% during the day, moved only slightly lower in early after-hours trading.

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Apple's numbers

• Revenue: $114.48 billion, above the $113.39 billion analysts expected (LSEG) and up about 12% from $102.5 billion a year ago. Apple had guided to 9% to 11% growth.
• Earnings per share: $2.10, above the expected $1.99 and up from $1.85 a year earlier.
• iPhone: $57.58 billion, ahead of the $56.54 billion estimate. The quarter included only about eight days of iPhone 18 Pro sales.
• iPad: came in short of estimates, according to CNBC.

Every segment vs estimates

Estimates are analyst consensus as reported by CNBC (LSEG), Yahoo Finance and Newsquawk. The 47.9% gross margin, near the top of Apple's own range, came despite higher memory and component costs, according to The Globe and Mail.

China: growing, but not enough

Greater China was the weak spot. Sales there rose about 21% from a year ago to $17.54 billion, but analysts had expected about $18.8 billion. With the stock priced for perfection, a miss in Apple's most watched region helps explain why the shares didn't jump on the overall beat.

Mac and Services

The Mac was the surprise: $10.79 billion against about $9.69 billion expected, a beat of more than $1 billion. Services set a new all-time high at $31.57 billion, but that was right on consensus rather than above it.

Holiday-quarter guidance: growth, but a margin squeeze

On the call, CFO Kevan Parekh gave this outlook for the December quarter, according to Yahoo Finance's live coverage:

• Revenue: growth of 7% to 10% from a year ago. Analysts had pencilled in about $152 billion to $153 billion. Parekh said he expects it to be Apple's best quarter ever.
• Gross margin: 45% to 46%, down from 47.9% this quarter, mainly because of higher memory costs tied to the Siri AI ramp.
• Services: growth of 8% to 9%, with headwinds from third-party licensing and currency moves.
• Operating expenses: $20.4 billion to $20.8 billion.

Apple also said most of the tariff refunds it expected have now been received, and that without them this quarter's margin would have been about one point lower. That matters for the next few quarters: the one-off boost is mostly gone, while memory costs keep rising.

What was expected going in

Analysts were looking for revenue of about $113.4 billion, iPhone sales up about 15% and Services up about 10%. Apple had warned that its gross margin would fall to between 47% and 48%, from the June quarter, as memory chip prices rose sharply. The foldable iPhone Duo went on sale on October 23, after this quarter ended, so it isn't in these numbers.

The stock

Apple closed the regular session at $338.32, down 1.83%. In the first minutes after the report, the shares traded around $335, down about 1%, according to Yahoo Finance, after briefly swinging between small gains and losses. After-hours moves are often volatile and can change by the next open. Apple went into the report at its highest price-to-earnings ratio since 2007, with a market value near $5 trillion, which leaves little room for disappointment.

Ternus's first test

This is John Ternus's first earnings report since he replaced Tim Cook as CEO in September. Investors will be listening on the call for three things: how strong iPhone 18 and iPhone Duo demand looks for the holidays, how much memory costs will squeeze margins, and how Apple's sales in China are holding up. Last quarter Apple also beat estimates, but the stock fell after a weaker-than-hoped forecast, so the guidance may matter more than the beat.

My take

A clean beat on revenue, profit, iPhone and Mac is a solid start for Ternus, with only a week of iPhone 18 Pro sales in the numbers. The catch is the outlook: 7% to 10% growth is a slowdown from this quarter's 12%, and a 45% to 46% margin shows memory costs are now really biting. With the stock at its richest valuation since 2007, that margin guide is the number to watch. Is a record holiday quarter enough if margins keep shrinking?