One of the most owned and watched companies on the stock exchange is Apple. The smartphones from Apple have changed the world, maybe for the better and people love the product. During the pandemic with many people staying at home, consumer products including Apple’s sales skyrocketed. That is good, but when sales take off, they will be expected to fall at some point.

In an article from Reuters, Apple’s sales have remained constant as Apple sales were $94.84 billion which is better than the street estimates of $93 billion. Profit was $1.52 a share compared to the estimates of $1.43 a share.

Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said Apple’s gross margins was between 44 and 44.5% versus the estimates of 43.7%

The Board approved of buybacks of $90 billion.

iPhones set a sales record thanks in part to the new users in markets such as India where Apple owned new Apple stores.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, one of the roles of investment banks is to provide estimates at what they think will be a company’s performance. It is up to the company to try to beat the estimates, but it is noted most of the time the estimates are generally accurate. The estimates for the companies that pay dividends should be within a couple percentage points for the analysts tend to know the industries very well. It is a rare dividend paying company that the analysts get wrong. If the analysts’ estimates are off for your investment, it is time to find alternatives.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.