Luca Maestri to Step Down as Apple CFO, The CFO Position at Apple, Apple Succession Planning
Today's Above Avalon Daily email contains the following story:
Luca Maestri to Step Down as Apple CFO
The CFO Position at Apple
Apple Succession Planning
For today's update, we will focus on the Apple CFO news. The email begins with my thoughts on Apple’s announcement that Luca Maestri will be stepping down as CFO. It’s a good time to recap the unique role finance and the CFO play within Apple. We conclude with an observation regarding how Apple seems to be handling succession.
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Microsoft 2Q24 Earnings, Ranking Big Tech’s 2Q24 Performance
Today's Above Avalon Daily email contains the following story:
Microsoft 2Q24 Earnings
Ranking Big Tech’s 2Q24 Performance
For today’s update, we will examine Microsoft’s CY2Q24 earnings. This will wrap up our Big Tech 2Q24 earnings reviews. We will then recap Big Tech earnings season by ranking the companies from best to worst reports.
While there are 2Q24 earnings from a few additional companies worth checking out, we will do that after going over several Apple news items.
Just a few hours ago, Apple announced that CFO Luca Maestri will be stepping down as CFO on January 1st, 2025. He will be remaining at Apple to lead Apple’s IT, information security, and real estate portfolios. Kevan Parekh, who has been at Apple for 11 years and is currently VP - Financial Planning and Analysis, will become Apple's new CFO. There is more to say about this tomorrow.
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Meta 2Q24 Earnings, Thoughts on Meta HW Sales
Today's Above Avalon Daily email contains the following story:
Meta 2Q24 Earnings
Thoughts on Meta HW Sales
We will continue our 2Q24 earnings reviews with Meta. Within Big Tech, Meta may be the most interesting from a competitive standpoint relative to Apple. Let’s jump in.
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Amazon Earnings, Amazon in the Home
Today's Above Avalon Daily email contains the following story:
Amazon Earnings
Amazon in the Home
Prior to heading off for vacation, we went over my thoughts on the U.S. v. Google verdict (Part 1 and Part 2). The two updates covered quite a bit. On social media, there continues to be a surprising number of people claiming default distribution contracts are under attack. Considering how the judge explained such arrangements are legal, it’s clear many people didn’t bother to read the verdict.
Earlier in the month, we took a deep dive into Apple’s 3Q24 earnings. While anticipation always rises heading into September thanks to the iPhone and Apple Watch rumor mill, expectations regarding what Apple will unveil remain in check. The same can be said for Apple Intelligence. There is growing acknowledgment that the rollout will be measured and gradual.
At this point, we will circle back to reviewing CY2Q24 earnings from some of Apple’s competitors. We already went over earnings releases from:
It makes sense to begin with the remaining Big Tech companies and then work our way down into certain verticals (i.e. streaming video). Today’s update will focus on Amazon’s earnings. It’s been six months since we talked about Amazon earnings (we skipped Amazon’s 1Q24).
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Tech Observations From My Vacation
Today's Above Avalon Daily email contains the following story:
Tech Observations From My Vacation
It feels good to get into the swing of things following some vacation time. As in the past, we will ease back into the daily updates. My vacation included some time in various beach / seaside locations in New England. The list included both quiet locales and somewhat high-density areas.
Some time away from screens and my usual workflows can be incredibly enlightening when it comes to technology usage. A few years back, my vacation included just iPad and iPhone usage, representing the longest stretch without using a mouse and cursor in decades. Returning to the iMac after such a break felt awkward. The time away gave me perspective on how multi-touch is more intuitive than a mouse and cursor. My confidence level is high that at some point in the future, the same will be said about eye tracking / voice / gesturing / AI vs. multitouch. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We will focus on some observations from my vacation as it pertained to tech gadget / app / service usage.
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Thoughts on the U.S. v. Google Verdict (Part 2)
Today's Above Avalon Daily email contains the following story:
Thoughts on the U.S. v. Google Verdict (Part 2)
We will continue to focus on the U.S. v. Google verdict. After reading through the 286-page ruling, my notes came out to about three updates worth of material. After a significant amount of reduction and editing, we used two updates to talk about the ruling and its potential fallout (with Apple in mind). Yesterday’s update went over all of the interesting details / tidbits from the ruling. Today’s update is focused on my thoughts on the ruling and how Apple may be impacted.
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Thoughts on the U.S. v. Google Verdict (Part 1)
Today's Above Avalon Daily email contains the following story:
Thoughts on the U.S. v. Google Verdict (Part 1)
We are going to focus on the U.S. v. Google verdict. After reading through the 286-page ruling, my notes came out to about three updates worth of material. After a significant amount of reduction and editing, we are going to use two updates to talk about the ruling and its potential fallout (with Apple in mind).
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Apple 3Q24 10-Q Takeaways, A Few Interesting Tidbits About Apple’s Share Buyback, Apple’s Free Cash Flow Margin
Today's Above Avalon Daily email contains the following stories:
Apple 3Q24 10-Q Takeaways
A Few Interesting Tidbits About Apple’s Share Buyback
Apple’s Free Cash Flow Margin
Today’s update will wrap up Neil’s 3Q24 Apple earnings review. We will examine Apple’s 3Q24 10-Q and the latest balance sheet and cash flow trends.
Here is how our review went:
Aug 7th: Secondary themes and charts
Aug 8th: Earnings call Q&A examination
Today: 10-Q, buyback, free cash flow
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Reading Between the Lines of Apple’s 3Q24 Earnings Q&A With Analysts
Today's Above Avalon Daily email contains the following story:
Reading Between the Lines of Apple’s 3Q24 Earnings Q&A With Analysts
Instead of just recapping the question and answer exchanges that occurred on Apple’s 3Q24 earnings call, we will go over Neil’s thoughts / response to each exchange. This will allow Neil to go beyond what was talked about on the call.
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Apple’s 3Q24 in Three Charts
Today's Above Avalon Daily email contains the following story:
Apple’s 3Q24 in Three Charts
Last Friday, we went over how Apple’s 3Q24 earnings compared to my expectations. Results came in close to my estimates. Nearly every line item beat (HW gross margin was the only thing that missed). We also discussed the largest takeaway from earnings: iPhone fundamentals continue to gradually improve and are becoming less of a drag on overall ecosystem growth.
For today’s update, we turn our attention to secondary themes from Apple’s earnings as shown via three financial charts.
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Buffett Slashes AAPL Stake in Half, What’s Really Going On?, Removing the Buffett Overhang
Today's Above Avalon Daily email contains the following story:
Buffett Slashes AAPL Stake in Half
What’s Really Going On?
Removing the Buffett Overhang
Hello everyone. What a busy start to the week.
My initial thoughts on Apple’s earnings were sent to all you via email last Friday. We are going to take an unexpected detour to focus on Warren Buffett news that came out over the weekend. There is still much to talk about regarding Apple’s 3Q24 earnings release and conference call – we only touched upon the big picture takeaway. We will shift back to earnings review mode tomorrow.
Earlier today, a judge ruled against Google in the Google Search vs. U.S. trial. This was the trial that involved Google's default search deal with Apple. We will talk more about the development after I have had time to read through the 286-page ruling. For now, we can point back to the following daily updates regarding the topic:
October 11th, 2023 (U.S. vs. Google, Apple in the Crosshairs, Satya Nadella Cries Wolf)
October 16th, 2023 (Apple as a Search Trojan Horse, My Estimates for Google TAC Payments to Apple, Potential Court Impact on Apple Search Revenue)
Let’s jump in.
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Apple’s 3Q24 Earnings, The iPhone Is a Powder Keg
Today's Above Avalon Daily email contains the following story:
Apple’s 3Q24 Earnings, The iPhone Is a Powder Keg
Welcome to a special Friday edition of the Above Avalon Daily. We will begin our Apple earnings review. The discussion will flow over into next week. Let's jump right in.
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My Granular Estimates for Apple 3Q24 Earnings
Today's Above Avalon Daily email contains the following story:
My Granular Estimates for Apple 3Q24 Earnings
We conclude my Apple 3Q24 earnings preview. Today’s discussion goes over my granular estimates for Apple’s 3Q24. We also look at my revised 4Q24 estimates heading into Thursday and a quick cheatsheet for Apple’s earnings release.
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Setting the Stage for Apple’s 3Q24 Earnings
Today's Above Avalon Daily email contains the following story:
Setting the Stage for Apple’s 3Q24 Earnings
We will begin preparing for Apple's earnings. Today’s discussion will examine the broader environment surrounding Apple (and AAPL) ahead of Thursday’s earnings release. We will go over my granular estimates tomorrow.
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Spotify 2Q24 Earnings, Spotify vs. Apple Music
Today's Above Avalon Daily email contains the following story:
Spotify 2Q24 Earnings
Spotify vs. Apple Music
This will be a busy week for earnings. We will begin preparing for Apple’s earnings release tomorrow. For today’s update, we focus on Spotify. It’s actually been nearly a year since we took a closer look at Spotify’s financial performance. The discussion goes over four factors that drove Spotify’s 2Q24, the big picture facing the company, and a key difference between Spotify and Apple Music.
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