Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi: "After a third straight quarter of negative YoY revenue growth, some investors have jeered that Apple's financials look like IBM's. That said, financial comparisons with IBM two decades ago are not unfounded: Apple between 2015 and 2023 has had strikingly similar pre-tax income and EPS growth as IBM did between 1997 and 2012."

"So what - if any - takeaways can we learn from IBM twenty years ago for Apple today? We see two: (1) revenue growth matters, and strong EPS growth absent revenue growth is unlikely to be afforded a rich multiple; and (2) customer lock-in can prove ephemeral when platforms change."