Apple Caps Off Big Tech Earnings Today

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Apple

is set to close out Big Tech earnings Thursday after the market closes. The iPhone maker is expected to report another year-over-year sales decline for the March quarter.

Shares of

Apple

(ticker: AAPL) have soared nearly 31% in 2023, though the stock is up just 2.4% over the past 12 months. The S&P 500 is up 7.7% this year and down 3.9% in the past 12 months.

So far, Big Tech earnings have been fairly positive. Reports from

Microsoft

(MSFT),

Alphabet

(GOOGL), and

Meta Platforms

(META) were mostly well received by Wall Street.

Amazon.com

‘s results topped estimates but a weak outlook around the cloud sent shares falling. Apple investors are hoping the firm follows in Microsoft’s footsteps, and not Amazon’s.

“With Big Tech showing impressive resiliency during earnings season the last few weeks now the baton is handed to Cook as investors all look towards Apple’s Thursday night print/guidance with the tech finale on 1Q,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote on Monday.

For Apple’s fiscal second quarter, the consensus among analysts polled by FactSet calls for earnings of $1.43 a share. Analysts expect sales fell 4.5% to $92.91 billion.

Ives rates Apple at Outperform with a $205 price target. He wrote Monday that he thinks an uptick in demand in China will help drive upside for iPhone sales.

“With an App Store uptick this quarter we also believe Services revenue should be stable and combined should translate into headline numbers from Cupertino that should at least meet the Street’s expectations,” Ives wrote.

J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee, who rates Apple at Overweight with a $190 price target, wrote Wednesday that investors will be especially interested in the firm’s commentary about the current quarter. The FactSet consensus call for the June quarter is for earnings of $1.21 a share and sales of $84.5 billion.

Write to Connor Smith at connor.smith@barrons.com