Apple Just Posted Its Best September Quarter Ever: $114.5B, Led by iPhone

Apple Q4 2026 results beat forecasts

Apple just reported its fiscal fourth quarter 2026 results, and they beat expectations on nearly every line. Revenue hit $114.5 billion, up 12 percent from a year ago, with net profit of $30.7 billion and diluted earnings per share of $2.10, up 14 percent. It is the first earnings report under CEO John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook on September 1, and it sets September quarter records for total revenue, iPhone revenue, and earnings per share.

Services revenue reached an all-time high of $31.6 billion. For the full fiscal year, Apple posted record revenue of $478.8 billion and net income of $132.2 billion, up from $416.2 billion and $112.0 billion in fiscal 2025. CFO Kevan Parekh said Apple generated $28 billion in operating cash flow during the quarter and returned $28 billion to shareholders.

iPhone did the heavy lifting

iPhone revenue rose 17.5 percent to $57.6 billion, a September quarter record and just over half of total revenue for the quarter. That beat analyst estimates of about $56.5 billion, and it came from the iPhone 18 Pro lineup and the new iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable phone, which launched in late October.

There is a catch, and Ternus said it plainly on the call: Duo is supply constrained. Apple cannot yet say when supply and demand will balance. That is a good problem in the sense that demand is real, and a bad problem in the sense that the holiday quarter is exactly when constrained supply hurts most. Watch Duo availability through November; it will shape the December quarter more than any marketing campaign.

Mac was the fastest grower, up 23.7 percent to $10.8 billion. Services grew 9.8 percent to $31.6 billion, broadly in line with estimates. The softer spots were iPad and wearables, and China remained a watch item despite the overall beat. Gross margin came in at 47.9 percent, helped by about one percentage point from tariff refunds, which also added about five cents to earnings per share.

Ternus's first report card

Every CEO transition invites a referendum, and this report is a strong first answer for Ternus. Revenue beat the company's own guidance range of 9 to 11 percent growth, and it beat analyst estimates of about $113.4 billion. The quarter included August and September product releases plus the CEO handover, and none of that visibly dented execution.

That said, one quarter does not settle a succession. The real tests for Ternus are ahead: the holiday quarter with Duo constrained, the rollout of Apple Intelligence in China in December, and the first touchscreen Macs shipping this month. Investors will also watch whether the tariff refund tailwind reverses and whether component costs pressure margins in 2027.

The dividend tells its own story about confidence. Apple declared a quarterly dividend of $0.27 per share, payable November 16 to shareholders of record as of November 12. For the full year, buybacks of $86.4 billion plus dividends of $15.7 billion returned $102.1 billion to shareholders, about 70 percent of operating cash flow.

What to watch next

Three things matter most from here. First, Duo supply: if constraints ease before Black Friday, the December quarter could be very strong. Second, China: Apple Intelligence testing there begins in November, with a public rollout planned for December, and regulatory approvals will decide the pace. Third, the new hardware wave: the OLED iPad Mini, M6 iMac, and touchscreen MacBook Pros all launch this month, and their early sales will show whether this product cycle has legs beyond the iPhone.

For context, this report lands after our earnings preview flagged the key questions, and after iPhone Duo preorders opened to long wait times. The answers so far are encouraging, with the usual caveats. A record quarter is not a guarantee, and Apple's toughest comparison, the holiday quarter, is still ahead.

The bottom line

$114.5 billion in revenue, $30.7 billion in profit, records for iPhone and Services, and a CEO transition that has gone ahead without visible disruption so far. Apple enters the holiday season with momentum, a constrained foldable, and a lot riding on whether it can make enough of them.