---
title: "Apple's earnings report shocked the market: Greater China region stops declining + shareholders earn 25 billion!"
type: "Topics"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/topics/32575954.md"
description: "First, the results: Apple $Apple(AAPL.US) just released its Q2 2025 report (usually called their Q3 fiscal quarter), and the results were significantly better than what Wall Street analysts had expected. Particularly, the sales speed (revenue growth rate) of iPhones reached its highest level since the end of 2021 (that is, three and a half years). This came as a bit of a surprise. How did the most important phone perform? The results were quite beyond expectations! iPhone revenue surged directly to $44.582 billion..."
datetime: "2025-08-04T12:34:13.000Z"
locales:
  - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/topics/32575954.md)
  - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/topics/32575954.md)
  - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/topics/32575954.md)
author: "[读财报话新股](https://longbridge.com/en/profiles/794333.md)"
---

# Apple's earnings report shocked the market: Greater China region stops declining + shareholders earn 25 billion!

First, the results: Apple $Apple(AAPL.US) just released its Q2 2025 report (commonly referred to as their fiscal Q3), and the results were significantly better than what Wall Street analysts had expected. Particularly, the growth rate of iPhone sales (revenue growth) **reached its highest level since late 2021 (i.e., three and a half years). This came as a surprise to many.**

**How did the most important product, the iPhone, perform? The results were way above expectations!**

iPhone revenue surged to $44.582 billion, up 13.45% year-over-year! This figure far exceeded analysts' earlier estimate of $40 billion. No one expected such a significant increase, but Apple delivered.

This better-than-expected growth is crucial and one of the main drivers of the company's overall revenue increase.

**Overall company performance: Stronger than expected**

Total revenue (operating income) was $94.036 billion, up 9.63% year-over-year. This also exceeded the market's earlier estimate of $90 billion.

Net profit was $23.423 billion, up 9.26% year-over-year, surpassing the expected $22.5 billion.

Earnings per share (EPS) were $1.57, up 12.14% year-over-year, also higher than the estimated $1.45.

Gross margin was 46.5%, maintaining Apple's consistently high standard.

Net profit margin was 24.9%. Although it dipped slightly by about 1 percentage point compared to the previous quarter, the absolute number remains very high, indicating strong profitability.

**Services segment remains stable**

Services revenue, including App Store, Apple Music, and iCloud, reached $27.423 billion, up 13.26% year-over-year, exceeding the estimated $26.8 billion. This shows continued healthy growth in this segment.

Other hardware, such as Apple Watch, AirPods, and HomePod, generated $22.031 billion in revenue, surpassing the estimated $21 billion.

Combined hardware revenue (including phones, computers, tablets, wearables, etc.) totaled $66.613 billion, up 8.2% year-over-year.

Breaking it down: Mac revenue grew 15%, which is positive, while iPad revenue fell 8%, indicating weaker sales.

**How is the China market? Slight recovery**

Greater China revenue (mainly mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) was $15.369 billion, up 4% year-over-year. Although the growth is modest, this marks the first increase since 2023 (i.e., after a year and a half), which is a positive signal.

This quarter, Apple returned $25 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks (where the company buys back its own shares to increase the value of remaining shares).

Of this, $21 billion was spent on share buybacks, and dividends were $0.26 per share.

Apple provided guidance for Q3 revenue, expecting year-over-year growth of about 5% to 10%. This range is slightly more optimistic than the market's earlier expectation of 5% growth (the upper limit of 10% is notably better).

Gross margin is projected to be between 46% and 47%, similar to current levels and slightly above the market's expectation of 46%.

One negative factor is tariffs: Apple estimates that tariffs will add approximately $1.1 billion in additional costs next quarter, which will impact profits.

**Summary of why the results are seen as positive:**

**Core product strength:** The unexpectedly strong performance of the flagship iPhone was key to beating expectations.

**Overall outperformance:** Total revenue, net profit, and EPS all exceeded analysts' estimates. Revenue growth was the fastest in three and a half years.

**Strong profitability:** Nearly 50% gross margin and 25% net margin show Apple remains highly profitable.

**Services held up:** Services revenue continued to grow steadily.

**China market stabilized:** Greater China revenue finally stopped declining and saw slight growth.

**Generous shareholder returns:** Billions in dividends and buybacks.

**Upbeat guidance:** Despite tariff impacts, the outlook for next quarter's revenue and margins is confident and slightly above expectations.

However, with a P/E ratio above 30, we believe the stock price has already priced in this strong earnings report. Therefore, at current levels, we recommend a wait-and-see approach for Apple!

$XIAOMI-W(01810.HK) $Microsoft(MSFT.US) $NVIDIA(NVDA.US)

### Related Stocks

- [AAPL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPL.US.md)
- [01810.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/01810.HK.md)
- [81810.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/81810.HK.md)
- [HXXD.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HXXD.SG.md)
- [XIACY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/XIACY.US.md)
- [MSFT.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MSFT.US.md)
- [NVDA.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NVDA.US.md)

## Comments (1)

- **888333 · 2025-08-04T13:01:23.000Z**: Up