--- description: Apple’s third quarter results easily beat its own guidance and the Street’s consensus, but failed to meet bullish iPhone sales guesses. title: Apple Stock Drops Despite Massive Revenue Growth image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62a92c5b89453069/69885bdd2dce01231c9e4ba8/apple.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Apple](/tag/apple/) ## Apple Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Apple Stock Drops Despite Massive Revenue Growth by [Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune](/author/fortune/) ## Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 21, 2015 9:09 PM CUT  The silhouette of Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., is seen as he exits the stage during the Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, June 8, 2015. The silhouette of Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., is seen as he exits the stage during the Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, June 8, 2015.Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune](/author/fortune/) ## Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 21, 2015 9:09 PM CUT Apple’s third quarter results easily beat its own guidance and the Street’s consensus, with sales of 47.5 million iPhones and 4.8 million Macs, more than making up for expected weakness in iPad sales. Apple failed, however, to beat some of the more bullish forecasts for iPhone sales; shares quickly dropped more than 7% in after-hours trading. Watch sales remain a mystery. CFO Luca Maestri told [Reuters](http://finance.yahoo.com/news/apples-smartwatch-beat-internal-expectations-205246867.html "undefined") that sales beat internal expectations, but didn’t say what they were. **MORE:** [_Here’s How Much Apple Made From the Apple Watch_](http://time.com/3966803/apple-watch-sales-estimate/ "undefined") “We had an amazing quarter, with iPhone revenue up 59% over last year, strong sales of Mac, all-time record revenue from services, driven by the App Store, and a great start for Apple Watch,” said Tim Cook in a [press release](http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/07/17FY-15-Third-Quarter-Results-Conference-Call.html "undefined"). “The excitement for Apple Music has been incredible, and we’re looking forward to releasing iOS 9, OS X El Capitan and watchOS 2 to customers in the fall.” “In the third quarter our year-over-year growth rate accelerated from the first half of fiscal 2015, with revenue up 33% and earnings per share up 45%,” said CFO Maestri. “We generated very strong operating cash flow of $15 billion, and we returned over $13 billion to shareholders through our capital return program.” By the numbers: — Revenue: $49.6 billion, up 32.5% — EPS: $1.85 per share, up 44.5% — iPhone: 47.53 million, up 47.6% — iPad: 10.9 million, down 17.7% — Mac: 4.796 million, up 8.8% — Services: $5.03 billion, up 12% — Other products: $1.641 billion, up 49.5% — Gross margin: 39.7%, up from 39.4% — Revenue guidance: $49 to $51 billion — Gross margin guidance: 38.5% to 39.5% ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3966779/apple-stock-drop/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3966779/apple-stock-drop/"},"headline":"Apple Stock Drops Despite Massive Revenue Growth","datePublished":"2015-07-21T21:09:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:06:07.553Z","description":"It didn't sell as many iPhones as some expected","url":"https://time.com/3966779/apple-stock-drop/","keywords":["Apple","Tech"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62a92c5b89453069/69885bdd2dce01231c9e4ba8/apple.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62a92c5b89453069/69885bdd2dce01231c9e4ba8/apple.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Apple tim cook","caption":"Apple tim cook","creditText":"Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/apple/","name":"Apple"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3966779/apple-stock-drop/","name":"Apple Stock Drops Despite Massive Revenue Growth"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The evolution of the iPhone","description":"Since Apple released the iPhone in 2007, there have been 8 versions of the now-iconic smartphone. 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