Three of the biggest names in the business flashed their books last night as Apple, Amazon, and Meta received mixed reviews.
Some days, there is simply too much to cover, and as I sit here poring over the Q1 filings of Apple, Amazon, and Facebook, I find myself overwhelmed.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at these three behemoths, the key takeaways, and a very unnecessary ranking from worst to best.
How did Big Tech do in Q1?
Let’s start with the ugly, and in the current climate of unionizations, supply constraints, and antitrust scrutiny, few come uglier than Amazon.
Amazon
Seemingly unstoppable during COVID-19’s height, it seems that the Amazon freight train is pulling into the station following a rare earnings miss of $7.38 per share versus $8.36 expected.
A major part of this worse-than-expected performance came from advertising revenue, which came in at $7.88 billion, versus $8.17 billion expected. What’s more, Amazon recorded a $7.6 billion loss on its Rivian investment after shares in the electric vehicle company lost more than half their value in the quarter.
Looks like this will be a quarter to forget for the e-commerce giant as it navigates a tricky macroeconomic climate due to the conflict in Ukraine.
Apple
Another seemingly unstoppable business hitting the ubiquitous speedbump of supply chain issues. Sure, almost every metric topped estimates, including EPS of $1.52 on revenue of $97.28 billion, but CFO Luca Maestri warned of several upcoming challenges, including supply constraints related to COVID-19 that could hurt sales by between $4 billion and $8 billion.
Still, quite a good showing for Apple considering rising constraints, as iPhone sales were expected to take a dive. With the board approving a further $90 billion in stock buybacks this year, it looks like business as usual in Cupertino.
Meta
The surprising pick of the bunch, Meta showed investors a better-than-expected profit in the first quarter.
The Facebook parent reported earnings per share of $2.72, higher than the $2.56 expected by analysts, however, revenue came in at $27.91 billion, lower than expected. What’s more, daily active users rose once more to a whopping 1.96 billion. The company said it expects revenue within the range of $28 billion to $30 billion for the second quarter.