Apple Q3 2026 Earnings: Record Revenue of $109.4 Billion and a CEO Handoff Overshadowed by Supply Chain Woes

iPhone, Mac, and Services revenue each set new June-quarter records. iPhone revenue rose 21% year over year to $54.3 billion . Mac revenue climbed 29% to $10.4 billion . Services revenue reached $30.7 billion .

Where Apple Came Up Short

Despite beating the headline numbers, Apple disappointed investors in several specific areas:

Q4 (September quarter) guidance. Apple forecast revenue growth of just 9% to 11% year over year for the fiscal fourth quarter, implying roughly $113 billion at the midpoint. That fell well short of the analyst consensus of approximately $114.9 billion . CFO Kevan Parekh said currency headwinds alone would shave about 2.5 percentage points off growth .

Greater China sales. Revenue from the region came in at $18.8 billion, below the $19.6 billion analysts had expected .

Supply constraints accelerate. CEO Tim Cook cited "advanced chipmaking bottlenecks" as the main supply constraint and warned that supply pressures would "increase significantly" in the September quarter . MacBook Neo shortages persisted and were flagged as a cap on upside .

Memory cost inflation. Cook also flagged rising memory component costs that would weigh on margins going forward . Gross margin for Q4 was projected at 47% to 48%, including about 1 percentage point of tariff benefit .

The Guidance That Triggered the Selloff

Apple's formal guidance for the fiscal fourth quarter of 2026 included:

• Revenue growth of 9% to 11% year over year — a notable deceleration from Q3's 16% growth .
• Supply constraints expected to worsen significantly, particularly affecting iPhone and Mac production .
• Foreign exchange acting as a 2.5-percentage-point headwind .
• Rising memory costs pressuring gross margins .

Management bluntly stated that supply issues would "increase significantly," hitting the company's most important products . Investors seized on this outlook as the primary reason to sell.

Market Reaction: Shares Fall Despite a Beat

Apple's stock fell sharply in after-hours trading, even though the company beat earnings estimates.

• The stock closed regular trading at $335.36, down 1.41% on the day .
• After hours, shares dropped between 4% and 7%, depending on the source — the Wall Street Journal reported roughly 4%, while Asianet reported as much as 7% .
• TradingKey reported a decline of over 4% to $319.09 .

The selloff was driven almost entirely by the weaker-than-expected guidance, worsening supply chain headwinds, rising memory costs, and slower China sales, rather than any disappointment with Q3 itself .

Key Development: Tim Cook's Final Earnings Call

This earnings report carried historic significance. It was Tim Cook's final earnings call as Apple CEO. He confirmed that John Ternus, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, will take over as CEO on September 1, 2026, with Cook transitioning to Executive Chairman .

Cook marked the occasion by reflecting on his 28 years at Apple and his 15 years as CEO, expressing full confidence in Ternus to lead the company forward . The transition had been announced in April 2026 and was described as the result of a thoughtful, long-term succession planning process approved unanimously by the Board .

What This Means for Investors

Apple's Q3 2026 results present a classic contrarian picture: a company that is executing exceptionally well operationally — record revenue, record EPS, surging iPhone and Mac sales — but facing a near-term outlook clouded by constraints outside its control. The chip bottlenecks and memory cost pressures are industry-wide issues, not Apple-specific failures. The question for investors is whether the demand strength Apple demonstrated in Q3 can sustain the business through a period of tighter supply, or whether the constraints will begin to meaningfully cap revenue and margin expansion. The CEO transition adds another layer of uncertainty, though the company has signaled a long-planned and orderly handoff.

Bottom Line

Apple's fiscal Q3 2026 was a strong quarter by nearly any measure: $109.4 billion in revenue, $2.02 EPS, and record sales across iPhone, Mac, and Services. But the market's attention immediately shifted to the September quarter forecast of 9–11% growth — well below analyst expectations — and to the mounting headwinds from chip bottlenecks, memory costs, and currency. Tim Cook's farewell to the earnings call stage only underscored the sense that Apple is entering a new era, facing supply challenges that no amount of demand can fully overcome in the near term.