Apple share price: Apple stocks jump big: iPhone makers predict blockbuster sales forecast as MacBook Neo dominates

Apple announced Thursday that demand for its flagship iPhone 17 and MacBook Neo helped fuel a strong sales forecast, sending its shares up nearly 4 percent a few hours later. But Apple warned of ongoing chip supply constraints, and the forecast underlined how it was fending off supply chain pressures and rising memory chip costs thanks to strong demand for the new Mac Neo, resilient services growth and strong sales in China.

The optimistic outlook and the new $100 billion share buyback reassured investors evaluating Apple’s leadership transition amid intensifying competition in the field of artificial intelligence.

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Apple executives said they expected sales growth of 14% to 17% in the third quarter of the current fiscal year, above Wall Street forecasts for a 9.5% increase to $102.93 billion, according to data from LSEG.

The iPhone, still the company’s best-selling product almost 20 years after its launch, had sales of $56.99 billion in the last quarter, slightly below estimates of $57.21 billion.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said iPhone sales lagged in the quarter due to supply constraints for the advanced processor chips that form the brain of the device. The chips for the iPhone 17 family are manufactured using a variant of the same TSMC chip manufacturing technology as many leading AI chips.
“The demand has been unusual. There’s also a little less flexibility in the supply chain to get more parts at the moment,” Cook told Reuters.apple macbook

Driving Apple’s results in the second quarter of the fiscal year was the MacBook Neo, which costs $500 for students. Analysts believe this could help Apple create a new $20 billion market for low-priced laptops now dominated by Google Chromebooks. Apple said Mac sales, which include several weeks of Neo sales, were $8.4 billion, compared to estimates of $8.02 billion.

Sales and profits for the second fiscal quarter ended March 28 were $111.18 billion and $2.01 per share, above analysts’ expectations of $109.66 billion and $1.95 per share.

In the fiscal second quarter, available inventory of memory chips helped Apple navigate rising prices. Apple said gross margin was 49.27%, above estimates of 48.38%.

But memory costs will catch up with Apple starting this quarter ending in June. Apple estimates gross margins will be between 47.5% and 48.5%; The midpoint is slightly lower than the quarter just reported. This is still above analysts’ estimates of 47.6%.

“We expect significantly higher memory costs,” Cook said on a conference call with analysts. “Where we do not color post-June, I would say we believe memory costs will have an increasing impact on our business after the June quarter.”

Cook also said Apple is seeking refunds for tariffs paid during US President Donald Trump’s second administration and will reinvest them in US production.

Apple is expected to announce more details about its AI plans when it holds its annual software developer conference in June.

Although Apple doesn’t spend tens of billions of dollars each quarter on artificial intelligence like its rivals, its research and development costs rose 33.5% to $11.42 billion in the fiscal second quarter.