Apple today has officially scheduled its fiscal Q2 2020 earnings call for Thursday, April 30. This will be an incredibly important earnings release for the company as it comes amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
Apple announced in February that it would not hit its Q2 earnings range due to coronavirus and the associated supply constraints and economic uncertainty. Apple had forecast a wider-than-usual range revenue range for Q2, predicting revenue between $63 billion and $67 billion. But due to the effects of the coronavirus, Apple won’t hit even the lowest end of that guidance.
This is the second time in the past year and a half that Apple has issued an earnings guidance revision. For Q1 2019, Apple was forced to lower revenue expectations due to fewer iPhone upgrades and lower-than-expected iPhone sales in China.
Apple’s fiscal second quarter covers the months of January, February, and March. This includes a sizable portion of the COVID-19 outbreak and shutdown in China, as well as its spread to the United States and other countries.
With that being said, we expect Apple’s Q3 2020 guidance to also be significantly affected by COVID-19 as well. Apple Stores and many other retailers remain closed to prevent the spread of the virus, and it’s unclear when they will reopen.
Apple said in February that customer demand across the product and services categories was been “strong to date and in line with our expectations,” but things have obviously changed significantly since then. We should learn more in Apple’s earnings release and during the call with analysts and investors on April 30.
