Apple CEO Tim Cook promises iPhone sales will rebound after AI features were slow to roll out

Apple shares rose in after-market trading on Thursday after the company forecast higher sales than Wall Street expected, a sign the company expects iPhone sales to recover as it rolls out artificial intelligence features.Apple executives said they expect sales for the current quarter to rise in the low- to mid-single digit range.After accounting for a 2.5 percentage point impact from foreign exchange rates, that forecast appeared to beat the 5% rise to $95.3 billion expected by analysts for the quarter that will end in March, according to data from LSEG.Apple shares rose more than 2% after the forecast.For the just-ended fiscal first quarter, Apple beat Wall Street’s quarterly profit estimates, but iPhone sales and China revenue for the holiday quarter were weak due to stiff Chinese competition and a slow rollout of artificial intelligence features.The company’s overall sales and profits were boosted by stronger-than-expected sales of iPads and Macs, where new chips helped persuade customers to upgrade.Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh told analysts gross margins in the current fiscal second quarter will be between 46.5% and 47.5%, with the top end of the range beating estimates of 47.01%, according to LSEG data.“The guidance management provided on the call exceeded expectations, as the iPhone gains momentum and Apple gets past a tough quarter in China,” said Gil Luria, managing director at D.A.

Davidson.In the just-ended quarter, iPhone sales dropped slightly to $69.14 billion, compared with the $71.03 billion that analysts were expecting, according to LSEG data.Greater China sales dropped to $18.51 billion, compared with $20.82 billion a year earlier and below the $21.33 billion that a Visible Alpha survey of five analysts expected.Total sales of $124.30 billion for the fiscal first quarter ended Dec.

28 inched past Wall Street’s target of $124.12 billion, according to LSEG, while earnings per share of $2.40 comfortably beat the consensus...