What is the reason for Apple's late earnings report?

Rather than at a huge breaking news event, Apple has planned to announce its results for the March quarter on May 4, an unusually late date, which has investors wondering if there is a reason why the company is taking so long to announce the results.

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Apple (ticker: AAPL -0.51%) reported its March quarter results on April 23 of the past 25 years. In both of the last two years, it reported on April 28 and April 30 of the year before, respectively. In the past quarter century, the latest date on which an announcement was made was on May 2 in 2017; the announcement for 2018 took place on May 1.

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A request for comment was not immediately responded to by Apple.

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The Street consensus forecasts that Apple will post revenues of $93 billion in the March quarter, down 4.4% from a year ago, with profits of $1.43 a share, down from $1.52 in the previous quarter.

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The Chief Financial Officer of Apple, Luca Maestri, stated when the company reported its December quarter results last month that the company would be able to grow revenue for the March quarter similar to the December quarter. However, Apple's top line declined 5% from a year ago. Approximately five percent of sales may be lost as a result of unfavorable exchange rates, according to him.

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Maestri told the Street that despite some headwinds from advertising and gaming due to macro conditions, the services business is expected to grow year over year. In addition, he added at the time that both Mac and iPad sales will be down by double-digits from a year ago due to the difficult comparisons to be made. Maestri also pointed out that iPhone sales should increase going forward, as they were suppressed by production issues in China during the December quarter. There was a projection that the gross margin in the quarter would range from 43.5% to 44.5%.

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Wedbush analyst Dan Ives recently indicated in an interview that he thinks Apple is pushing out the date this time to gain another week's worth of data on the current quarter, specifically on iPhone sales in order to provide a more accurate forecast for the June quarter. Ives points out that the company is widely expected to announce its entry into the augmented/virtual reality hardware market a month ahead of the 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference, where the company is widely expected to announce its entry into the augmented/virtual reality hardware market several months before the conference. Additionally, he thinks that the company will provide some information regarding its artificial intelligence strategy, as well.

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Taking a look at the Street consensus for the June quarter, it's predicted that the company will generate revenue of $85.6 billion, up 3% over a year ago, and profits of $1.24 a share, up from $1.20 a share. It is estimated that revenue for the fiscal year ending in September will be $389 billion, down about 1% from the previous year.

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Moreover, it is likely that Apple will announce a revision to its capital allocation policy, which could include an increase in dividends and an expansion of its stock repurchase program.

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The stock price of Apple has risen by 26% so far this year.