The first quarterly (Q1) earnings season looks quite good, with companies beating the earnings forecast by 6.9%, the highest rate since Q3 2021.
But with 47% of companies having reported, S&P 500 earnings per share (EPS) is likely to decline 4.2% year over year—better than the consensus forecast of a 6.7% decline at the end of the quarter—according to FactSet.
The mega-release of Q1 earnings reports for major companies happened on Thursday. What happened to them?
Live Nation jumps
The music company’s revenue jumped 73% to a record $3 billion.
Apple happy over iPhone
Emerging markets like India, Indonesia and the Middle East boosted iPhone sales. But revenue fell for the second straight quarter. Apple has a profit of $24 billion and a revenue of 94.8 billion.
The company’s iPhone sales rose 1.5% to $51.33 billion. iMac sales fell more than 30% to $7.17 billion. Sales in devices like AirPods and Apple Watch declined less than 1% to $8.76 billion.
iCloud and Apple Pay grew 5.5% to $20.9 billion.
Bud Light falls, company profits
Besides its recent Bud Light marketing scandal involving a transgender influencer, the world’s largest brewer, Belgian firm Anheuser-Busch InBev reported a profit of $4.76 billion, up by 13.6% from Q1 of 2022.
Following the marketing campaign backlash, Bud Light’s sales fell 26% in the week ending April.
Shopify earns
Beating estimates, Canada-based e-commerce firm Shopify earned one cent per share, down a penny from a year earlier. Revenue rose 25% to $1.5 billion. A year earlier, Shopify earned 2 cents per share on revenue of $1.20 billion.
More cruises
Signaling a travel boom, results lifted Royal Caribbean stock, up nearly 7%. It earned $2.89 billion. Its revenue was up 172.4% on a year-over-year basis.
Ferrari has a smooth ride
Luxury car maker Ferrari outperformed and posted revenues of $1.53 billion. The earnings per share is $1.74 compared to $1.45, a year ago.