AFrom the technology sector, mixed results came on Thursday after the market closed. The electronics group Apple convinced with slightly better than expected quarterly figures. Online retailer Amazon.com, despite posting a loss, also beat analysts’ forecasts and gave an upbeat outlook, while also saying it had shed nearly 100,000 jobs in the past three months. Chipmaker Intel suffered a dramatic drop in sales. Apple’s shares initially gained around 3 percent in value after trading, Amazon’s price rose by more than 12 percent, Intel had to accept a minus of 10 percent.
Apple grew its revenue last quarter by 2 percent to $83.0 billion, slightly ahead of expectations. Net income fell 11 percent due to higher costs, but was still an impressive $19.4 billion. Earnings per share of $1.20 were 4 cents better than expected. The outlook was also positive, with Apple predicting higher sales growth for the next quarter.
Three months ago, Apple warned that tightening corona restrictions in the important Chinese market could cost it between $4 billion and $8 billion in sales this quarter. Apparently, things weren’t so bad, as CEO Tim Cook has now said, those losses ended up being just under the lower end of that range.
More iPhones sold, iPad sales fall
Sales of the iPhone, Apple’s flagship product by far, rose 3 percent last quarter to $40.7 billion, slightly better than expected. In the services division, which is now the second-largest business and includes offers such as the App Store, the payment service Apple Pay and the video platform Apple TV+, sales increased by 12 percent to $19.6 billion.
But all other divisions shrank. Sales of the iPad tablet computer fell 2 percent to $7.2 billion, while Macintosh computers fell 10 percent to $7.4 billion, as did products like the Apple Watch digital clock and the wireless Airpod -Headphones suffered an unusual 8 percent drop this time to $8.1 billion.
Amazon surprises positively
Amazon’s results were better than feared, but the bar wasn’t too high either after the company disappointed and offered a cautious outlook when it reported its latest results three months ago.
Revenue rose 7 percent to $121.2 billion in the second quarter, from $119.1 billion analysts had expected. The online retailer posted a net loss of $2.0 billion as a result of the decline in the value of its stake in electric car maker Rivian. But the operating result, which does not take this effect into account, has more than halved to $3.3 billion. Amazon already admitted three months ago that, after rapid expansion, it had built up overcapacities both in terms of staff and in the network of distribution centers. The company is trying to counteract this and is cutting jobs. In the second quarter, the number of employees fell by almost 100,000 to 1.52 million. But that’s still almost 200,000 more than a year ago. The numbers include full-time and part-time positions.
As in the first quarter, the core business in online trading was the biggest weak point. Here, sales fell by 4 percent. Once again, however, Amazon was able to rely on the cloud computing business, in which sales rose by 33 percent to $19.7 billion. The Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud division also remains a reliable contributor to profits. Its operating profit rose 36 percent to $5.7 billion. That was more than the group-wide operating profit, which means that all other divisions combined were in deficit.
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With a view to the next quarter, the online retailer was confident of accelerating sales growth again: he predicted an increase of between 13 and 17 percent. However, he expects another decline in the operating result.
Amazon has just announced a significant price increase for its Prime customer loyalty program in European markets. In Germany, for example, the price should rise from 69 to 89.90 euros. In its American home market, Amazon raised the price from $119 to $139 a few months ago. Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said in a conference call that the price increases have so far had a lower negative effect on subscriber numbers than expected.
Intel lowers full-year forecast
The disappointment of the day was Intel. The chip manufacturer had to accept a drop in sales of 22 percent to 15.3 billion dollars, analysts had expected almost 18 billion dollars. There was a loss of $454 million, compared to a profit of $5.1 billion last year. Earnings per share adjusted for special items of 29 cents were well below the 70 cent mark expected by analysts. The company was also forced to dramatically downgrade its own full-year forecasts. He now expects sales of between 65 billion and 68 billion dollars, previously he had promised 76 billion dollars.
CEO Pat Gelsinger, who has only been in office for almost a year and a half, found very self-critical words. The results are “below the standards that we have set for the company and our shareholders.” This has to do in large part with the “sudden and rapid” general economic downturn, but also with in-house weaknesses. “We must and will do better.”
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