Tim Cook Hosts Final Earnings Call as CEO Thursday, Apple Stock Up 24% This Year

Apple posted its fiscal third-quarter results after the closing bell Thursday, and it's the last time Tim Cook will do it as CEO.

The call with analysts started at 5 p.m. ET, according to MacRumors, which noted anyone can stream it live on Apple's Investor Relations website with no registration required. John Ternus, Apple's current head of hardware and a 25-year company veteran, takes over as CEO on September 1. This was Cook's final turn in the chair.

Going into the report, analysts polled by LSEG expected revenue to climb 16% from the $94 billion Apple posted a year earlier. Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Ng was more bullish, projecting 18% year-over-year growth and earnings of $1.93 per share, ahead of the Street's $1.89 consensus, according to Business Insider. Goldman rates the stock a "Buy" with a $370 price target.

If Apple hit expectations, it marked a third straight quarter of revenue growth above 15%, according to CNBC. Before the December quarter, Apple hadn't strung together double-digit growth since 2021. FactSet consensus estimates cited by CNBC show that streak is expected to cool fast, with fourth-quarter growth projected around 12% and dropping into single digits for most of 2027.

The stock's a standout, for now

Apple shares closed up 24% for the year as of Wednesday, CNBC reported, and Business Insider put the gain at 25% by Thursday, noting Apple briefly topped a $5 trillion market cap earlier in the week before pulling back slightly. The gain puts Apple as the best performer among the Magnificent Seven this year, according to Business Insider.

That's a notable reversal. For much of the past two years, Apple lagged its megacap peers as investors questioned whether the company was falling behind on artificial intelligence. Business Insider's framing is that Cook "largely sidestepped" the AI capital-spending debate consuming rivals like Meta and Microsoft by leaning on consumer hardware instead of massive data center buildouts. Whether that's a genuine advantage or a company still catching up on AI investment remains an open question for analysts.

The memory crunch and price hikes

Cook has called the global memory chip shortage a "hundred-year flood," according to CNBC, and it's already forced Apple's hand. The company raised prices across its Mac and iPad lineups on June 25, Business Insider reported, citing the supply crunch as the reason.

The iPhone was spared from that round of increases. But analysts widely expect Apple to raise iPhone prices when the iPhone 18 launches in September, according to both CNBC and Business Insider. Apple hasn't confirmed that publicly. Cook or CFO Kevan Parekh could address the question directly on Thursday's call, and investors will be listening closely for any signal.

Higher component costs squeezing a company famous for industry-leading gross margins is a real tension. Apple has built its brand and its stock premium partly on protecting those margins. If chip costs keep climbing, the company faces a choice between passing costs to consumers or absorbing a hit to profitability, and neither is painless for a company selling premium-priced hardware.

Siri overhaul and the AI question

Apple is preparing to launch a redesigned Siri built using Google technology, timed to arrive alongside new iPhone hardware in September, according to CNBC. That's widely seen as a critical test. Investors have spent much of the past two years worried Apple ceded ground to competitors on generative AI, and a Siri relaunch built on outside technology is an unusual admission that Apple's in-house AI efforts weren't ready to carry the load alone.

Goldman's Ng, in a July 27 note cited by Business Insider, argued Apple's future growth will come less from AI headlines and more from its services business, things like iCloud+ and AppleCare+. He wrote that "the majority of gross profit growth over the next 5-years should be driven by Services," which he said should mark an inflection point supporting Apple's premium stock multiple.

Ternus steps into the spotlight

Termus said little on the prior earnings call held shortly after Apple announced the CEO transition in April, according to CNBC, and investors are eager to hear more from him this time as he prepares to take the reins.

Apple typically issues forward revenue guidance on its earnings call. The guidance, along with any commentary on iPhone pricing and the Siri relaunch, will shape how Wall Street interprets the last chapter of Cook's decade-plus run atop the company before Ternus officially takes over September 1.