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Apple (AAPL) Q4 Earnings to Benefit From Services Momentum

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Apple’s (AAPL - Free Report) Services business, which includes revenues from Internet Services, App Store, Apple Music, Apple Care, Apple Pay, and licensing and other services, has become the new cash cow for the company.

The performance of the Services business in fourth-quarter earnings, scheduled to be released on Nov 1, would be eagerly watched by investors to get a measure of the success of Apple’s revenue diversification strategy.

In the last reported quarter, Apple Services’ revenues accounted for 17.9% of sales. Revenues of $9.55 billion increased 31% from the year-ago quarter.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Services revenues is currently pegged at $10.44 billion.

Click here to know how Apple’s overall fourth-quarter performance is likely to be.

Services Momentum to Continue    

Apple’s Services segment is expected to benefit from robust spending for subscription-based applications such as Netflix, Tencent Video, Spotify (SPOT - Free Report) and Tinder.

In the last reported quarter, paid subscriptions surpassed $300 million, increasing more than 60%. We expect the momentum to continue, primarily due to the growing number of high-quality apps supported by a strong developer base.
 

Per latest data from Sensor Tower, Apple's App Store generated nearly 94% more revenues than Google Play during the third quarter.

Moreover, Apple Music has gained rapid traction within a short span of time, which makes it a significant growth driver. Notably, Apple Music surpassed Spotify in the U.S. market, in terms of paid subscribers. The service registered 50% year-over-year growth in the last reported quarter. Moreover, Apple completed the Shazam acquisition in the quarter.

Further, increasing adoption of Apple Pay is strengthening competitive position of the company against the likes of Square (SQ - Free Report) and PayPal (PYPL - Free Report) . In the last reported quarter, Apple Pay was used for more than 1 billion transactions. Moreover, the service was live in 24 markets worldwide with more than 4,900 bank partners.

Zacks Rank

Currently, Apple has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here.

 

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