<div id="readability-page-1"><div> <h2>Key Points</h2><ul><li>Apple's earnings per share rose 22% year over year in its fiscal second quarter.</li><li>The company's services business accelerated to 16% revenue growth.</li><li>Apple's capital expenditures are minuscule compared to these &#34;Magnificent Seven&#34; peers.</li><li>10 stocks we like better than Apple ›</li></ul>This week, five &#34;Magnificent Seven&#34; members -- Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) -- reported quarterly results, and the headlines all looked great. Calling out some of the highlights, Meta's revenue jumped 33%, Alphabet's Google Cloud revenue soared 63% year over year, and Amazon's cloud computing business grew at its highest rate in 15 quarters.But four of these five companies have been spending huge sums of cash to produce this kind of growth. And some of them even used their latest quarterly updates as opportunities to raise their already massive 2026 capital expenditure budgets.Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an &#34;Indispensable Monopoly&#34; providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue »One of these companies' earnings reports, however, looked much different from the rest: Apple's. The iPhone maker posted accelerating growth without committing enormous spending on AI infrastructure -- and it did this while seeing accelerating growth in its high-margin services business, too.Here are four reasons why I think Apple was the best report of the bunch -- and the best stock to buy out of the group, too.<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://g.foolcdn.com/image//query-dXJsPWh0dHBzOi8vZy5mb29sY2RuLmNvbS9lZGl0b3JpYWwvaW1hZ2VzLzg2ODM5NC9iZXN0LW1hZy1zZXZlbi1zdG9jay10by1idXkuanBnJnc9NzAw?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" width="700" height="350" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://g.foolcdn.com/image//query-dXJsPWh0dHBzOi8vZy5mb29sY2RuLmNvbS9lZGl0b3JpYWwvaW1hZ2VzLzg2ODM5NC9iZXN0LW1hZy1zZXZlbi1zdG9jay10by1idXkuanBnJnc9NzAw"/>Image source: Getty Images. <h2>1. Accelerating revenue growth</h2>Apple's fiscal second quarter of 2026 (the period ended March 28, 2026) revenue of $111.2 billion was up 17% year over year, and earnings per share climbed 22%. Both numbers represented a step up from the prior quarter, when fiscal Q1 revenue grew 16% and earnings per share rose 19%. And the company's biggest segment -- iPhone -- saw revenue increase 22% year over year to $57 billion, with management calling the iPhone 17 the most popular lineup in Apple's history.Further, the overall business benefited from strong momentum in the key Greater China market, where revenue jumped 28% to $20.5 billion.Looking ahead, Apple's strong momentum should persist. The company guided fiscal third-quarter revenue to grow 14% to 17% -- well above the roughly 10% Wall Street had been expecting.<h2>2. This high-margin segment is accelerating</h2>Apple's high-margin services business -- which includes the App Store, Apple TV, Apple Music, Apple Pay, iCloud, AppleCare, and advertising -- has been a core part of the bull case for years. And last quarter, it stepped on the gas.Apple's fiscal second-quarter services revenue of nearly $31 billion was up 16% year over year -- an acceleration from 14% growth in fiscal Q1 and 13.5% growth across all of fiscal 2025. With services running at a roughly 77% gross margin against about 39% for products, this segment's acceleration significantly bolsters the bull case for Apple stock. In addition, this acceleration is occurring amid the rise of AI services, suggesting the company may be finding ways to benefit from the AI boom.Feeding its services business, Apple boasts an active installed base topping 2.5 billion devices. And management reaffirmed plans to introduce ads in Apple Maps in the U.S. and Canada this summer -- a small but telling reminder that there are still levers to pull on the services side to further engage and monetize this huge user base.<h2>3. Financial discipline while peers chase AI</h2>Then there's what Apple isn't doing.Two of the companies that reported this week raised their 2026 capital expenditure plans. Alphabet now expects to spend $180 billion to $190 billion this year, up from a prior range of $175 billion to $185 billion. And Meta lifted its range to $125 billion to $145 billion (from $115 billion to $135 billion). Meanwhile, Microsoft revealed that it expects calendar 2026 capital expenditures to total around $190 billion, and Amazon kept its already huge 2026 plan at roughly $200 billion. Combined, that's well over half a trillion dollars of planned capital expenditures in just one year.Apple, by contrast, spent only about $13 billion on capital expenditures across all of fiscal 2025, and its capital expenditures for the first two quarters of fiscal 2026 have totaled just $4.3 billion (down from $6 billion in the same period last year). Of course, Apple is still investing in AI, but in a different way. It's collaborating with Google on foundation models to power Siri. And Apple Intelligence continues rolling out across its product line -- but it's doing so without bankrolling its own hyperscale data center build-out. That could become a meaningful free cash flow advantage if Apple can still deliver good AI to its users without spending like its peers are.<h2>4. A roadmap that could keep the story going</h2>And Apple may have an unprecedented product pipeline in the works.On Apple's fiscal second-quarterearnings call CEO Tim Cook said the company is bringing &#34;a more personalized Siri to users coming this year.&#34;Further, incoming CEO John Ternus, who steps into the role on Sept. 1, pointed to what he called &#34;an incredible roadmap ahead.&#34;Even more, technology reporter Mark Gurman, well-known for his Apple scoops, recently asserted that Cook is leaving Ternus &#34;with a tailwind of an unprecedented 10 new product categories launching in the next few years.&#34; Showing how significant this would be, Gurman added that Cook has debuted only three new product categories since 2011. There are risks, of course. For instance, higher memory costs could weigh on margins later this year. Additionally, a CEO transition introduces some execution risk. And then there's valuation risk: shares currently command a price-to-earnings ratio in the mid-thirties.Still, with Apple's revenue growth accelerating, services accelerating alongside it, and Apple sidestepping the AI capex arms race, the iPhone maker's quarter looks like the most attractive of the five to me -- and I think the stock is worth its premium valuation.<h2>Should you buy stock in Apple right now?</h2> Before you buy stock in Apple, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Apple wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $504,832!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,223,471!* Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 971% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 202% for the S&amp;P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 1, 2026. Daniel Sparks and his clients have positions in Apple. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc. </div></div>

The earnings reports of the four tech giants are all out, and all exceeded expectations! Google Cloud revenue grew 63% year-over-year, driving its stock price up 7% in after-hours trading; Amazon AWS's growth rate hit a near three-year high; Microsoft's stock price fell; Meta was hammered by over 6% due to another increase in capital expenditures. Apple, the final company to report, exceeded expectations and increased its share buyback program. How were your bets this earnings week? Share your results!

The earnings reports of the four tech giants are all out, and all exceeded expectations! Google Cloud revenue grew 63% year-over-year, driving its stock price up 7% in after-hours trading; Amazon AWS's growth rate hit a near three-year high; Microsoft's stock price fell; Meta was hammered by over 6% due to another increase in capital expenditures. Apple, the final company to report, exceeded expectations and increased its share buyback program. How were your bets this earnings week? Share your results!

Super Earnings Week Wraps Up — Apple Beats Expectations!

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Apple's fiscal second quarter earnings report showed a 22% year-over-year increase in earnings per share and a 17% rise in revenue, outperforming peers like Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta, which are heavily investing in AI. Apple's services revenue grew 16%, benefiting from a strong installed base of 2.5 billion devices. Unlike its competitors, Apple maintained financial discipline with minimal capital expenditures, spending only $4.3 billion in the first half of fiscal 2026. This positions Apple favorably as it continues to innovate without excessive spending on infrastructure.

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Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, and Apple Just Reported Earnings. I Think This Was the Best Report of Them All.