Apple Reports Q4 Earnings Today With $113.46 Billion on the Line

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), now the only company besides one other ever to close above a $5 trillion market capitalization, reports fiscal fourth-quarter results after today's closing bell — and Wall Street expects $113.46 billion in revenue, according to Bloomberg analyst consensus estimates cited by Yahoo Finance.

That figure would mark a meaningful step up from a year ago. Apple reported $102.46 billion in total revenue for Q4 2025, with earnings per share of $1.85. The consensus for this quarter sits at $2.00. Those are the two topline numbers investors will measure against when the call begins at 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET.

Why does this quarter matter more than usual?

Three things make this report unusual. First, it closes out Apple's fiscal year, which ended September 30. Second, it is the first quarter run — at least partly — by new CEO John Ternus, who replaced longtime chief executive Tim Cook at the beginning of September. Third, Apple broke with its traditional iPhone release pattern.

Historically, Q4 is Apple's most important quarter for product launches, since new iPhones arrive just a few weeks before the quarter closes. This year, Apple announced only the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max during the quarter. It pushed the updated iPhone 18 and iPhone Air 2 into the third quarter of next year.

That staggered schedule clouds the September comparables. Investors will watch closely for any word from Ternus or chief financial officer Kevan Parekh on how the split launch affected iPhone sales.

Apple also announced its first foldable, the iPhone Duo, during the quarter — but the device did not go on sale until October, after the quarter ended. The Duo contributed nothing to Q4 revenue. Still, as Apple's most radical iPhone redesign ever, early sales hints from leadership will draw scrutiny.

What about the AI spending question?

This earnings season has punished tech investors, with Wall Street reacting negatively to most major results over the past week. Microsoft was the outlier that beat quarterly cloud revenue estimates.

The core irritant is negative free cash flow at giants like Google and Amazon, driven largely by capital expenditures on AI data centers. The AI reckoning has also dragged down Reddit and Intel after their earnings announcements.

Apple sits outside that storm — for now. Unlike its Big Tech contemporaries, Apple has refrained from heavily investing in AI data centers, the source of those negative free cash flows. The source characterizes that restraint as, it now appears, wise.

But AI costs are not entirely absent from Apple's ledger. Higher memory prices, driven by the broader AI buildout, are raising Apple's component costs. Analysts will want an update on how those pressures affect the company going forward. Apple will likely address AI's impact on its business during the call.

What does Wall Street expect, segment by segment?

Bloomberg's consensus, via Yahoo Finance, breaks down as follows:

• Total revenue: $113.46 billion
• EPS: $2.00
• iPhone revenue: $56.48 billion
• Services revenue: $31.58 billion
• Mac revenue: $9.69 billion
• Wearables revenue: $8.99 billion
• iPad revenue: $6.83 billion

Against last year's $102.46 billion in revenue and $1.85 EPS, the consensus implies roughly 10.7% revenue growth and about 8% EPS growth year over year. The iPhone line, at $56.48 billion, remains nearly half the business — which is why the staggered launch question matters so much.

What could move the stock after hours?

Perhaps the most important item is guidance for Q1 fiscal 2027, the holiday quarter and typically Apple's biggest of the year. Strong guidance could lift the stock after hours; weaker guidance could do the opposite.

Apple enters the report from a position of strength. It has been the best-performing Magnificent 7 stock all year, largely viewed as a safe haven from the AI trade because of its conservative AI spending. As of Friday's close, AAPL was up nearly 27% for the year. Nvidia had gained less than 10%, Microsoft 8%, and Amazon just over 4%. Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla sat underwater at roughly 11%, 11%, and 6.8%, respectively.

Apple recently leapfrogged Nvidia to become the most valuable company in the world.

The takeaway in plain words: Apple reports from a position of unusual strength, but a staggered iPhone launch, rising memory costs, and holiday-quarter guidance give investors three concrete reasons to question whether that strength holds.