Apple stock slides despite upbeat quarterly results

Apple reported Q1 2022 strong financial results on Thursday. The company proved that over the years it has built a strong brand, for which demand remains high even in the face of weaker market conditions. Still, some selling pressure appeared in the pre-market  as the tech-giant expects slower growth in the next quarters. Also negative sentiment around the technology sector increased after yesterday's surprisingly negative US GDP reading as some investors believe this may be a first sign of recession.

• EPS: $1.52 vs. expectations of $1.43 (up 6.8% YoY)
• Gross margin: 43.7% vs expectations of 43.1% 
• Revenue: $97.28 billion vs expectations of $93.89 billion (over 8.5% YoY
• iPhone revenue: $50.57 billion vs expectations of $47.88 billion (up 5.5% YoY)
• Services revenue: $19.82 billion vs expectations of $19.72 billion (up 17.28% YoY)
• The board of directors approved the company's share buybacks of $90 billion vs $88.3 billion in 2021;
• An increase in iPhone sales of nearly 55% in the quarter confirms the success of the new iPhone13 model;
• Product sales grew fastest in the Americas (up over 20%), slowed slightly in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong (up nearly 3.5%)
• CEO Tim Cook believes that lockdown in China did not have a significant impact on the company's operations and products this quarter;
• Apple reported record revenue of $19.8 billion from Apple TV+, Apple Music, AppStore, cloud computing and other services. The company has worked for this result for many yearsand invested additional capital in this business sector. As a result growth reached 17% compared to Q1 2021. 
• The company also registered a record 825 million paid subscriptions of Apple's platform, within last 12 months number of subscribers reached nearly 165 million;
• Services revenue helps reduce the negative impact of supply chain issues on the company's bottom line;
• Apple's revenue from services increased to $75 billion. Apple plans to add more services in the next few years, increasingly targeting entrepreneurs and large companies as well;

"These impressive results reflect the impact of our continued investment in improving and expanding our services portfolio and the positive momentum that we're seeing on many fronts," said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO.

• At the same time, Apple revealed that it expects a slightly weaker pace of growth in later quarters of the year due to supply chain issues and a projected temporary slowdown in service growth, which is driven by a number of economic factors, including reduced spending among consumers caused by rising mortgage rates;

• However, the company expects service revenue to continue to grow at a double-digit pace. Apple noted that supply chain issues and unfavorable currency movements may weaken the company's ability to meet demand for its products.

Apple (AAPL.US), D1 interval. The company's stock has been in a strong uptrend since March 2020. However, we see that the uptrend line was broken around mid-February which may have raised concerns among bulls. However, the declines have been halted around $151, which coincides with the 23.6 Fibonacci retracement of the last upward wave. Further downward reaction towards $150 could push the price lower towards the next support at the level around $133, which coincides with the 38.2 Fibonacci retracement and highs from December and August 2020. Source: xStation5