Apple Tops Wall Street’s Profit Expectations but Tariff Fears Still Loom

Apple built its business by innovating. But lately, it’s been leaning on diplomacy.

Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, recently scored exemptions from tariffs on exports of Chinese-made iPhones. The maneuver freed Apple to focus on business, and lately, business has been good.

A new, lower-priced iPhone, which the company introduced in February, and strong sales of apps and services helped the company make $24.78 billion in quarterly profit, a 4.8 percent increase from a year ago, Apple said on Thursday. The company’s sales rose5 percent to $95.36 billion.

The results exceededWall Street analysts’ expectations for $24.37 billion in profit and $94.35 billion in sales. The company said it expected revenue to rise slightly in the current quarter, which ends in June. Shares fell more than 3 percent in after-hours trading.

Apple’s steady performance came amid turbulence. In just a few months, the company has had to navigate internal and external obstacles, including the failures of its much anticipated artificial intelligence system and the challenges of the Trump administration’s punishing tariffs on products made abroad.

During a call with Wall Street analysts, Mr. Cook said that tariffs had begun to take a bite out its business. He estimated $900 million in costs in the current quarter because of tariffs, provided the rates of those levies stay the same and no new fees are introduced.

Last month, shares of Apple plummeted after President Trump imposed tariffs of 145 percent on exports from China, where Apple makes 80 percent of the iPhones it sells, as well as tariffs on other countries that make iPads and Macs like Vietnam. The tariffs erased about $770 billion of the company’s market value in four days.