How has Apple stock performed?

A record quarter, earnings up 29%, and the shares fell anyway. Here's the ten-year record, why the recent run outpaced it, and what the two misses that mattered actually tell you about the business.

By Nathan Wickham-Hurd · Founder, Oak Growth · First-class Economics & Finance, MBA · Last reviewed August 2026

The short answer

Apple has had a good year in the business and an uneven one in the share price. Revenue reached a record and earnings grew faster still, yet the shares fell sharply at the start of August and sit up around 13% for 2026 — a long way behind the ten-year record. The gap between those two facts is the whole story, and it comes down to where growth is coming from rather than how much of it there is.

Context, August 2026. Apple's most recent quarter set a revenue record of $109.42bn, up 16%, with earnings per share up 29% to $2.02 and double-digit growth across regions. The shares nonetheless fell 3–4% immediately and more than 7% across the week, on a Greater China revenue miss ($18.8bn against about $19.6bn expected) and a shortfall in high-margin Services ($30.74bn against about $31.22bn). Management flagged a global memory shortage and said Mac and iPad prices would rise. Market conditions change; the framework below is meant to outlast them.

The longer record

Apple has compounded at roughly 29% a year over the past decade — a figure that turns £1,000 into well over £12,000. Over five years the rate is nearer 19%, over three roughly 20%, and the last twelve months have been unusually strong at around 42%.

Notice the shape, because it's the opposite of most large technology companies right now: the recent rate is higher than the long-run one. That means Apple has re-rated rather than simply grown — investors are paying more per pound of earnings than they were. Re-rating is a one-time gain dressed as performance, and it can reverse.

A useful discipline with any strong recent run: separate how much came from the business earning more and how much came from the market paying more for the same earnings. The first is durable; the second is a loan the market can call in.

Why a record quarter still knocked the shares

The misses were in the two places that matter most

Greater China is both a major market and a manufacturing concentration. Services is the highest-margin part of the company and the reason Apple is valued as more than a hardware business. Missing on both, in a quarter where everything else beat, told investors the growth was coming from the lower-quality half.

Services is the valuation

The App Store, iCloud, payments and advertising recur without a new product launch and arrive at far higher margins than devices. A Services shortfall reduces the multiple people will pay for the whole company, not just that line.

Component costs are rising

The global memory shortage is pushing up input prices across the industry. Apple raising Mac and iPad prices protects margin but risks volume — and it's a reminder that even the strongest brand isn't immune to a supply chain it doesn't control.

Expectations were high going in

Shares up 42% over twelve months arrive at results with a lot already priced. That's the mechanism by which a record quarter can still disappoint. See the fuller breakdown of that fall.

What hasn't changed

The ecosystem switching cost is intact. Photos, messages, purchases, watch pairing and passwords all live inside it, and leaving costs time rather than money — a more durable lock than price. Installed base is the number that underwrites future Services revenue regardless of any single quarter's shipments.

One thing that will keep looking alarming and isn't: debt to equity. Years of very large buybacks have shrunk the equity base, so any ratio calculated against it reads badly. Look at net cash and interest cover instead. See debt to equity explained.

The four things to check from here

Services as a share of gross profit

Not of revenue. The margin difference means its profit contribution is much larger than its revenue share suggests.

Greater China trend, not a single quarter

One miss is noise. Three consecutive quarters is a pattern, and it would matter for both demand and manufacturing risk.

Whether the memory shortage passes through

Watch whether price rises hold without volume falling. That's the practical test of pricing power.

Regulatory exposure

App Store commission rates and default search payments are both high-margin and both under challenge in several jurisdictions. Slower-moving than a quarterly miss and considerably larger.

Growth or re-rating?

Oak Growth estimates what Apple and roughly 1,000 other companies are worth on discounted cash flow, and shows the gap against today's price across eight markets.

Explore Oak Growth

Common questions

How has Apple stock performed?

Apple has compounded at roughly 29% a year over the past decade, about 19% a year over five years and around 42% over the last twelve months. The recent rate being higher than the long-run rate means much of the gain has come from re-rating — investors paying more for the same earnings — rather than from earnings growth alone.

Why did Apple shares fall after record results?

Because the misses were in the two places that matter most for the valuation: Greater China revenue and high-margin Services both came in below expectations, even as total revenue hit a record. With the shares up sharply over the prior year, a lot of good news was already priced in.

Is Apple still a growth company?

Its growth increasingly depends on Services — the App Store, iCloud, payments and advertising — rather than device unit sales, since those recur at much higher margins without needing a new product launch. That is why a Services shortfall affects the share price more than a hardware one.

Why does Apple's debt look so high?

Years of very large share buybacks have shrunk the equity base, which inflates any ratio measured against it. The underlying financial position is far stronger than the debt-to-equity ratio implies, so net cash and interest cover are more informative measures for Apple.

Also see: Apple (AAPL) full analysis → · Why did Apple stock drop? → · What is an economic moat? →