Financial Report Preview | Will Apple's Performance be as Stunning as Microsoft's?

After the US stock market closed on Thursday, Apple will release its first-quarter financial report.

The Apple manufacturer expects its first-quarter sales to once again decline year-on-year.

Apple's stock price soared nearly 31% in 2023, despite only rising 2.4% in the past 12 months. The S&P 500 index rose 7.7% this year and fell 3.9% in the past 12 months.

So far, the performance of large technology companies has been quite optimistic. The financial reports of Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta Platforms have mostly been praised by Wall Street. Amazon's performance exceeded expectations, but the weak prospects of its cloud computing business caused the company's stock price to fall.

Apple's investors hope that the company can follow in the footsteps of Microsoft, rather than Amazon.

Market expectations

Analysts surveyed by FactSet generally expect Apple's first-quarter sales to fall by 4.5% to $92.91 billion. Analysts expect Apple's first-quarter earnings per share to be $1.43.

FactSet's general expectation for Apple's second-quarter is earnings per share of $1.21 and sales of $84.5 billion.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives believes that the rise in demand in China will help drive Apple's sales.

Analyst views

Ives rates Apple as outperforming the market with a target price of $205.

Ives wrote: "With the growth of the App Store this quarter, we also believe that the revenue of the service business should remain stable, and combined, Apple's overall performance should at least meet Wall Street's expectations."

Morgan Stanley analyst Samik Chatterjee rates Apple as "buy" with a target price of $190.