Apple’s stock slides as it blames supply chain constraints for its weak guidance

UPDATED 22:04 EDT / JULY 30 2026 APPS Apple’s stock slides as it blames supply chain constraints for its weak guidance by Mike Wheatley iPhone maker Apple Inc. reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue as it delivered its third quarter results, thanks to a 22% surge in handset sales. However, its stock was trading almost 6% lower in the late trading session after it issued weak guidance for the current quarter, blaming that primarily on “supply constraints.” The company reported earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation of $2.02 per share, easily beating Wall Street’s target of $1.89 per share. Revenue for the period jumped 15% to $109.42 billion, surpassing the $108.65 billion analyst estimate. All told, Apple delivered net income of $29.79 billion in the quarter, up from $23.43 billion in the year-ago period. Today’s conference call was notable because it’s the last to be led by Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook (pictured) before he hands over the reins of the company to John Ternus, a 25-year Apple veteran who currently serves as its head of hardware. Ternus was also present on the call, but let Cook do most of the talking. Cook told analysts that Apple is dealing with a global memory crunch that he termed a “hundred-year flood,” and a scramble by companies to secure chip manufacturing capacity. It’s also seeing foreign currency headwinds, he said. As a result, it’s facing significantly higher costs, which have already forced it to increase prices for its Mac computers and iPads. The company has so far resisted increasing the prices of its iPhones, but most analysts believe that it will be forced to do so at some point this year. At the same time as it’s dealing with this component crisis, it’s also gearing up for the launch of a redesigned Siri that’s powered by Google LLC’s Gemini artificial intelligence technology, as well as the latest iPhone models in September. Those launches will be a critical test for the company at a time when investors are worrying it’s falling behind its rivals in terms of its AI capabilities. iPhone price speculation Cook told analysts that the current situation is “difficult,” and “not good for the consumer,” but he refused to be drawn on speculation regarding the iPhone. “Obviously, the memory prices are choking, so we’ll have to look at alternatives,” he said. Cook elaborated, saying that Apple has been paying more for the memory chips it buys for the last three quarters. “We expect to pay even higher memory costs going forward,” he said. The company does still have a substantial inventory of memory chips that can be used to offset some of those costs, but he doesn’t see an end in sight to the increasing costs of those components, and said the market really needs to expand beyond its three primary suppliers of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Micron Technology Inc. and SK hynix Inc. “If you look beyond September, we see the market pricing for memory continuing to increase, which could drive an increasing impact on our business,” Cook said. Valoir analyst Rebecca Wettemann said there has been intense speculation over possible iPhone price increases, because it’s not really clear if those potential higher costs would help or hinder Apple, considering it has always sold premium products at premium prices. “Price elasticity of demand is a real thing, and future quarters will tell us if economic uncertainty pushes consumers to look for Apple alternatives or simply slow their upgrade cycles,” she said. “Apple’s new CEO will need to show more product innovation and strong guidance on sales and margins.” Apple will also be under pressure to ensure that the long awaited Siri upgrade i