Apple reclaimed its position as the world’s most valuable company on Wednesday, with its shares now up 30% for the year, a day after a post earnings selloff allowed Nvidia to briefly overtake it. Nvidia had moved past Apple on Tuesday to a roughly $5.02 trillion valuation against Apple’s $4.85 trillion as the iPhone maker’s shares fell nearly 4%.
The Tuesday drop followed Apple’s forecast for fiscal first quarter gross margins of 45% to 46%, below the 46.3% consensus estimate and down from 47.9% in the September quarter. CFO Kevan Parekh cited Siri AI ramp expenses and what he called “unprecedented” memory pricing, which he said will continue rising beyond December. To lock in components, Apple raised its manufacturing purchase obligations by $33B between the June and September quarters and increased inventory 154% year over year to $14.54B, as COO Sabih Khan noted that easing 2 nanometer chip constraints left memory availability as the primary December bottleneck for Mac and iPad.
The tighter margin outlook had overshadowed an upbeat holiday revenue growth forecast of 7% to 10%, ahead of the 6.1% estimate, alongside projected Services growth of 8% to 9%. In its first quarterly report under CEO John Ternus, Apple posted fiscal fourth quarter revenue of $114.48B, up 12% year over year and above the $113.39B estimate, while EPS of $2.10 topped the $1.99 consensus and included a $0.05 benefit from tariff refunds. iPhone sales rose 17% to $57.58B, Mac revenue climbed 24% to $10.79B, and Services reached $31.57B, while Greater China revenue grew 21% to $17.54B, missing the $18.55B estimate.