Quick Read – Apple’s Services segment hit a record $31 billion in Q2, growing 16% year over year at a 76% gross margin across 2.5 billion active devices. – AAPL returned 49% over the past year, beating QQQ post-earnings, while a new $30 billion Broadcom chip deal offsets rising…
mory cost pressure. – Apple’s board authorized a fresh $100 billion buyback and raised its dividend 4%, part of over $1 trillion returned to shareholders since the program began. – I keep hitting the buy button on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and going into the back half of 2026 this is the largest position I own. I want to explain, in plain terms, why my money keeps landing here quarter after quarter
What pulls me back is simple. Apple pairs a subscription-like Services engine with a hardware franchise that just posted its best March quarter ever, wrapped inside a capital return program built to compound in the background whether or not the stock cooperates in any given month. The Services Engine Is the Anchor In Q2 FY26 the segment hit an all-time record of $30.98 billion at a 76.7% gross margin, growing 16% year over year.
That is a software business hiding inside a hardware company, riding 2.5 billion active devices. CFO Kevan Parekh described the growth as “broad-based, with all-time records in both developed and emerging markets.” Recurring, high-margin, sticky. The iPhone 17 Cycle Is Real iPhone revenue climbed 22% to $56.99 billion in Q2 FY26.