John Ternus began his Apple CEO tenure in September and faced investors for the first time Monday with a result that cut against a weak quarter for several large technology peers: Apple posted stronger-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter revenue.¹

The headline numbers gave Ternus a clean opening. Revenue reached $114.5 billion, above the $113.46 billion Wall Street expected, while earnings per share came in at $2.10 versus a $2 consensus. “This is an amazing time at Apple,” Ternus told analysts, pointing to what he called one of the company’s most prolific product-launch periods.²

The beat was driven by Apple’s familiar engine. iPhone revenue hit $57.58 billion, ahead of expectations, and Mac sales of $10.79 billion beat estimates by more than $1 billion. Ternus also flagged supply constraints, even as the company’s newer hardware cycle—including the iPhone Duo, HomeView and touchscreen MacBook Pro—began to reshape his first months in charge.

But the quarter also supplied the caveats. Greater China revenue was $17.54 billion, missing the $18.75 billion forecast, while iPad sales were $6.23 billion against expectations of $6.83 billion. Investing.com analyst Jesse Cohen called the roughly $1 billion China shortfall “a worrying pattern,” arguing that Wearables, Home and Accessories were also failing to carry enough weight beyond the iPhone.²

Costs are the other pressure point. Apple’s 47.9% gross margin benefited from tariff refunds; without them, CFO Kevan Parekh said company and product margins would have fallen about one percentage point sequentially, largely because of higher memory costs. Ternus called current memory pricing “unprecedented,” and Apple expects those costs to rise again during the holiday quarter.²

Apple’s shares were roughly flat after hours: a verdict that captured the split-screen result. Ternus has a beat to celebrate, but not yet a clean all-clear.