By Maya CollinsApple Q4 revenue climbed 12% year over year to a September-quarter record of $114.5 billion, giving new Chief Executive Officer John Ternus an upbeat debut earnings report on November 2 and November 3, 2026. The Cupertino, California technology giant topped Wall Street forecasts of $113.4 billion as flagship smartphone demand and digital subscriptions expanded.
Record Fourth-Quarter Profit and Full-Year Revenue Milestones
For the fiscal fourth quarter ended September 26, 2026, Apple posted net income of $30.71 billion, or $2.10 per diluted share, up 14% per share from $27.47 billion, or $1.85 per share, in the year-earlier period. The quarterly result beat average analyst estimates of $1.99 per share and included a favorable impact of $0.05 per share from tariff refunds.
Fourth-quarter gross margin reached 47.9%, aided by roughly 1 percentage point from those tariff refunds, while Services revenue climbed to an all-time record. Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh reported that full-year fiscal 2026 revenue reached an all-time high of $479 billion alongside double-digit annual earnings-per-share growth.
Apple generated $28 billion in operating cash flow during the fourth quarter and returned $28 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends. The board of directors also declared a cash dividend of $0.27 per share payable on November 16, 2026, to shareholders of record as of November 12, bucking a wider Business downturn after Alphabet, Amazon, and Intel posted disappointing results.
Hardware Lineup Expansion Under CEO John Ternus
Ternus, who officially stepped into the chief executive role in September 2026, highlighted strong customer upgrade activity ahead of the winter holiday shopping season. Apple’s fall smartphone lineup is anchored by the transformational iPhone Duo alongside the high-performance iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
Beyond smartphones, the company introduced a new generation of smart home hardware, brought touch-screen capabilities to the Mac computer lineup for the first time, and rolled out its revamped Siri AI assistant. Parekh noted that high customer loyalty pushed Apple’s active installed base of devices to an all-time high across every major product category and geographic region, bolstered by resilient demand in China.
AI Spending Discipline and Holiday Margin Outlook
Market analysts observed that Apple’s restrained approach to capital-intensive artificial intelligence infrastructure helped preserve free cash flow while Big Tech peers faced investor skepticism over soaring data center budgets. Digital market analyst Jacob Bourne noted that strategic partnerships with firms such as Alphabet allow Apple to expand AI capabilities without taking on the same financial risks.
Even with record September-quarter revenue, management cautioned that gross margin in the December holiday quarter is projected to ease to between 45% and 46%. Executives attributed that sequential margin compression to rising memory chip component prices and rollout expenses supporting Siri AI.
Investors reacted cautiously to the tighter holiday margin guidance during the post-market conference call on Monday afternoon. After closing regular trading down 1.8% at $338.32, Apple shares declined 2.6% to $329.60 during the earnings call as Ternus addressed supply availability and pricing for the flagship iPhone Duo. Even with that after-hours pullback, portfolio managers noted that record September-quarter revenue of $114.5 billion and $479 billion in annual sales underscore the durability of Apple’s hardware and services ecosystem entering fiscal 2027.
