After rumors swirled that Warren Buffett was selling Apple shares hand over fist due to concerns over sales dwindling, while every other Mag 7 stock watched in disbelief, Apple's earnings actually beat its Q3 expectations—despite a slump in iPhone sales.

Investors were convinced that the Oracle of Omaha himself had been offloading Apple shares after Barron’s threw gasoline on the fire with a recent article a few days ago. After all, he had already trimmed Berkshire Hathaway's Apple stake by 13% in the first quarter. With tech earnings crapping the bed, who could blame them for thinking Warren was bailing out even more?

While we won’t get the full scoop until Buffett's second-quarter 10-Q form drops on Saturday. Here’s the kicker: Apple pulled a rabbit out of its hat and delivered a surprise. They reported an earnings per share (EPS) of $1.40 on a revenue of $85.5 billion, just barely dancing past Wall Street’s expectations of $1.35 EPS and $84.4 billion revenue. And get this—iPhone sales were actually down, with revenue from iPhones at $39.2 billion, just a smidge below last year’s $39.6 billion. It's like when your favorite NFL team beats the Chiefs and sends Taylor Swift packing without your starting quarterback.

So how did Apple manage to wow Wall Street with their star player benched? The real MVPs turned out to be iPads and services. Apple's iPad sales skyrocketed to $7.1 billion, blowing past the $6.6 billion analysts predicted, all thanks to the snazzy new iPad Pro line. And let's not forget about services—revenue hit a record $24.2 billion, outdoing the $23.9 billion forecast. Talk about an impressive moat right? Mac revenue also contributed with $7 billion, slightly up from last year’s $6.8 billion. Wearables, however, saw a slight dip to $8 billion from $8.2 billion.

Looking ahead, Apple’s new AI-powered software, Apple Intelligence, is set to launch this fall. They teamed up with Sam Altman and OpenAI for this project, which, as you can imagine, didn't sit too well with Elon Musk. In classic Apple fashion, this new software will only be compatible with the latest iPhone 15 Pro and newer models, so anyone who wants a more AI upgraded Siri, well you'll have to upgrade with a $2,000 phone. I’d expect nothing less, they’ve been doing this for years. Remember when they admitted to slowing down customers' older phones on purpose to get them to buy new ones? At least they're honest about it.

(Source: Newzchain)

Overall, Apple’s performance shows they’ve got more than just one trick up their sleeve. With services and iPads raking in the cash and Apple Intelligence on the way, they’ve got moats upon moats to continue making money. Whether Buffett is selling shares or not, Apple continues to impress.

Stock.News has positions in Apple.