Apple eyes iPhone growth in first earnings report since Tim Cook's announced exit

Apple reports fiscal second-quarter earnings on Thursday, its first time facing Wall Street since the announcement last week that Tim Cook will be stepping down as CEO after 15 years on the job.

Here's what investors are expecting, according to LSEG consensus estimates.

• EPS: $1.95
• Revenue: $109.7 billion

Wall Street is also looking at these key areas: 

• iPhone revenue: $56.7 billion expected, according to StreetAccount
• Mac revenue: $8.16 billion expected, according to StreetAccount
• iPad revenue: $6.71 billion expected, according to StreetAccount
• Wearables, Home and Accessories revenue: $7.8 billion expected, according to StreetAccount
• Services revenue: $30.4 billion expected, according to StreetAccount
• Gross margin: 48.4%

Analysts expect 15% year-over-year revenue growth at Apple from $95.4 billion a year earlier. The main driver is the iPhone, with Wall Street looking for a 20% jump in annual sales, thanks largely to the popularity of the iPhone 17, which went on sale last year.

In March, Apple announced a number of new products, including its iPhone 17e, a refreshed iPad Air laptop with an M4 chip in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes. But the biggest surprise was the MacBook Neo, a low-cost laptop priced at $599 and aimed at students and budget-conscious consumers.

While device sales are always key to Apple's results, top of mind for Wall Street is what to expect from incoming CEO John Ternus. Apple announced last week that Ternus is succeeding Cook, who will become executive chairman on Sept. 1. Ternus is a longtime Apple exec who's been running hardware.

One of the first things Ternus has to figure out is where Apple is going to go with artificial intelligence. Early in the quarter, Apple announced it would partner with Google to use its Gemini AI model to power its Siri product.

Apple has spent much less on AI technology than peers like Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft, which are collectively spending well over half a trillion dollars this year on AI infrastructure.

The global memory crunch could also be a big topic on the earnings call.

All of Apple's devices, including the iPhone, Mac and iPad, use a lot of storage and memory, raising questions about how the company plans to handle increased memory prices from AI demand. Meta and Microsoft said Wednesday that higher memory prices contributed to their increased capex forecasts for the year.  

Apple has so far been able to stave off any significant price hikes for its key devices.

"We believe Apple has memory costs well under control based on its recent product launches," analysts at Evercore ISI wrote in a note this week.

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