Apple iPhone sales tumble, earnings whiff, stock tanks

Details are pictured on the backside of an Apple Iphone 6 on a table in a restaurant in Hanau, Germany, April 10, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach · Yahoo Finance

Apple (AAPL) sales fell for the first time since 2003.

The tech giant reported revenue of $50.6 billion and earnings of $1.90 per share. Analysts were looking for $52 billion and $1.99, respectively.

All of this was down from $58.0 billion and $2.33, respectively, from a year ago.

Shares are down by 6% in after-hours trading.

The key driver of declines was iPhone sales, which fell 16% year-over-year to 51.19 million units. iPhone revenue tumbled 18% to $32 billion. iPad sales fell 19% to 10.25 million units. Mac sales tumbled 12% to 4 million units.

Apple products all tumbled. (Image: Apple)
Apple products all tumbled. (Image: Apple)

Sales in the Americas, which represent Apple's largest market, fell 10% to $19.0 billion.

Greater China, which is considered a growth market, saw sales plunge 26% to $12.5 billion.

Apple has returned $10 billion of its massive cash hoard to shareholders in the form of buybacks and dividends.

The bad news isn't over yet

Management expects business to remain lackluster with fiscal Q3 revenue in the range of $41 billion and $43 billion. This was much worse than the $47 billion analysts were forecasting.

CFO Luca Maestri announced that the board approved the authorization of $250 billion to be returned to shareholders. The share buyback authorization is being increased to $175 billion from $140 billion.

“Our team executed extremely well in the face of strong macroeconomic headwinds,” Apple CEO Tim Cook, said.

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