{"id":1305,"date":"2026-11-03T11:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T03:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onemoremoney.com\/onemorestock\/aapl-q4-2026-earnings-results\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T11:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T03:09:10","slug":"aapl-q4-2026-earnings-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onemoremoney.com\/onemorestock\/aapl-q4-2026-earnings-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple (AAPL) Q4 2026 Earnings: Record Quarter, Margin Squeeze"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Apple (AAPL) Q4 2026 Earnings: Record Quarter, Margin Squeeze<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Apple reported fiscal fourth quarter 2026 results on Monday, 2 November 2026, after the US market close. Apple’s fiscal year ends in September, so “Q4 2026” here means the quarter ended 26 September 2026, not the calendar fourth quarter. It was also the first earnings call led by John Ternus, who succeeded Tim Cook as chief executive on 1 September 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The headline numbers were clean beats. Revenue was $114.48 billion, up 12% year over year, against a consensus of $113.39 billion (LSEG, via CNBC). GAAP diluted EPS was $2.10, up 14%, against a consensus of $1.99. Management then guided to the best revenue quarter in Apple’s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stock still fell. AAPL closed the regular session at $338.32, down 1.83%, and traded at $328.85 after hours, a further 2.8% lower (Investing.com, 2 November 2026). CNBC described the after-hours slide as about 3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason sits in one line of the guidance: December quarter gross margin of 45% to 46%, down from 47.9%, because memory prices are rising faster than Apple can offset them. This analysis covers the scorecard, the segments, the margin problem, what management said, and what changed for long-term investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Apple Q4 2026 Earnings Scorecard<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Metric<\/th>Actual<\/th>Consensus (LSEG)<\/th>Company guidance<\/th>YoY<\/th>Result<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Revenue<\/td>$114.48B<\/td>$113.39B<\/td>Not applicable<\/td>+12%<\/td>Beat<\/td><\/tr>
EPS (GAAP, diluted)<\/td>$2.10<\/td>$1.99<\/td>Not applicable<\/td>+14%<\/td>Beat<\/td><\/tr>
Gross margin<\/td>47.9%<\/td>47.5%<\/td>Not applicable<\/td>47.2% a year ago<\/td>Beat<\/td><\/tr>
Operating margin<\/td>31.1%<\/td>Not available<\/td>Not applicable<\/td>31.6% a year ago<\/td>Lower<\/td><\/tr>
Operating cash flow<\/td>$28.1B<\/td>Not available<\/td>Not applicable<\/td>Not available<\/td>Not applicable<\/td><\/tr>
iPhone revenue<\/td>$57.58B<\/td>$56.54B<\/td>Not applicable<\/td>+17%<\/td>Beat<\/td><\/tr>
Mac revenue<\/td>$10.79B<\/td>$9.61B<\/td>Not applicable<\/td>+24%<\/td>Beat<\/td><\/tr>
iPad revenue<\/td>$6.23B<\/td>$6.7B<\/td>Not applicable<\/td>down 10%<\/td>Miss<\/td><\/tr>
Wearables, Home and Accessories<\/td>$8.30B<\/td>$9.06B<\/td>Not applicable<\/td>down 8%<\/td>Miss<\/td><\/tr>
December quarter revenue guidance<\/td>+7% to +10% YoY<\/td>+6.1% YoY (analyst average)<\/td>Set this quarter<\/td>Not applicable<\/td>Above<\/td><\/tr>
December quarter gross margin guidance<\/td>45% to 46%<\/td>46.3% (analyst average)<\/td>Set this quarter<\/td>Not applicable<\/td>Below<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: Apple earnings release and 8-K dated 2 November 2026; consensus per LSEG via CNBC, as of 2 November 2026. Apple reports on a GAAP basis and does not headline an adjusted EPS figure. Operating margin and quarterly operating cash flow are calculated from the release (quarterly cash flow is the full-year figure minus the nine-month figure).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One detail matters for reading the beat. Apple said tariff refunds added $0.05 to EPS and “approximately one percentage point” to gross margin. Even without that help, EPS of roughly $2.05 and gross margin of roughly 46.9% would still have cleared consensus. The quarter was genuinely strong; the forward margin is the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the full fiscal year 2026, Apple reported records across the board:<\/p>\n\n\n\n