Apple Loses About $140 Billion After Hours on Memory Cost Warning
Apple beat Q4 revenue and EPS estimates but shed roughly $140 billion in after-hours value after new CEO John Ternus called memory pricing unprecedented.
Correction: Adds after-hours price reaction of about $140 billion, new CEO John Ternus's memory pricing comments, Services growth guidance of 8% to 9%, December revenue growth guidance of 7% to 10%, and delayed-trading move of about 1.8%.
Apple (AAPL) reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $114.48 billion and earnings per share of $2.10 on November 2, 2026, both above estimates, but lost roughly $140 billion in after-hours market value after new chief executive John Ternus called memory pricing "unprecedented."
Revenue for the quarter, which ended September 26, came in ahead of the $113.39 billion estimate, and the $2.10 EPS beat the $1.99 consensus. The stock first rose 0.5% after hours to $340.00, then fell to $329.03 by 7:59 p.m. ET, down 2.75% from the $338.32 close. The session ended at $328.81, down 2.81%, a loss near $139 billion on 14.59 billion shares; an intraday low of $323.33, down 4.43%, had put the paper loss near $219 billion before buyers clawed some back. That figure excludes a 1.83% regular-session drop worth about $92 billion. Apple closed at $4.94 trillion, just ahead of NVIDIA (NVDA) at $4.88 trillion.
The sell-off followed guidance. Apple guided December-quarter revenue growth to 7% to 10%, above the 6.1% analysts expected, and December-quarter gross margin to 45% to 46%, below the 46.3% estimate. Gross margin was 47.9% in the September quarter, with tariff refunds adding about one percentage point. Chief financial officer Kevan Parekh said that once refunds are removed, higher memory costs should account for most of the fall to the guide midpoint. Every iPhone, Mac and iPad uses DRAM for working memory and NAND flash for storage, so chip prices hit all Apple hardware. Ternus added that memory pricing would keep rising beyond the December quarter.
Apple also guided Services growth to 8% to 9%, below the roughly 10.7% analysts expected. Market commentary blamed the after-hours drop on the gross margin and Services guidance, since Services is the higher-margin business that usually cushions swings in hardware costs.
Apple raised Mac and iPad prices at the end of June and iPhone prices in September. Parekh said the company reluctantly changed pricing, and that it was too early to assess any impact on demand from the price changes. Chief operating officer Sabih Khan said memory is the main cause of December-quarter Mac and iPad constraints, and that it is hard to predict when supply and demand will be in balance for iPhone Duo. Manufacturing purchase obligations rose $33 billion from June to September, and inventories reached $14.54 billion, up 154.3% from $5.72 billion a year earlier.
Apple rose more than 24% in 2026, so expectations were high. Demand is exceeding supply and the revenue guide beat estimates, but the risk is elasticity: if higher prices cut holiday unit sales, the margin and demand cases weaken together. In delayed trading on November 3, Apple shares were down about 1.8%. Holders of record on November 12 will receive the $0.27 dividend on November 16, and December-quarter gross margin will be reported in late January 2027.