Apple's second quarter numbers beat the Street (AAPL)

• Apple reported fiscal second-quarter results Tuesday that beat Wall Street's forecasts.
• Although its sales and earnings were below those it posted in its second quarter last year, they were better than analysts were expecting.
• The company's shares were up 6% in afterhours trading following its report.
• Watch Apple trade live.

Apple won't have to do much to impress Wall Street on Tuesday.

The tech giant is slated to report its earnings for its fiscal second quarter after the market closes — and, following the company's lead, analysts have exceedingly modest expectations. They're projecting that the company will announce that both its sales and earnings slumped in the period from the year-ago quarter and that they'll do so again in its third quarter.

Should the company hurdle that low bar, it could see its stock pop.

Wall Street reset its projections for the company this year after it warned in January that it saw worse-than-expected iPhone sales over the holidays, and expected continued struggles in coming months. The warning followed numerous reports and indications that its latest models weren't catching on with consumers to the same extent that previous models had. With Apple unlikely to refresh its lineup until this fall, analysts are projecting its sales won't rebound anytime soon.

Even if analysts and investors have largely written off this overall report already, they will likely be scrutinizing the results of Apple's services business. As its iPhone sales have slowed, the company has increasingly been touting the growth of that segment, which includes everything from its Apple Music subscription service to its iCloud storage business to the money it gets from Google for promoting Google's search engine. Last month, Apple unveiled new subscription based services for news, games, and videos, although only the news service has launched so far.

Read this: Here's why Apple's coming streaming video service won't rescue it from plunging iPhone sales

Here's what Wall Street is expecting Apple to report, according to Bloomberg, and how its forecasts compare with the company's year-prior results:

• Fiscal second quarter (Q2) revenue: $57.5 billion. In the same period last year, Apple posted revenue of $61.1 billion.
• Q2 iPhone sales: $30.5 billion. The company recorded $38 billion in iPhone sales in 2018's second quarter.
• Q2 services sales: $11.2 billion. Apple's services business brought in $9.2 billion in revenue in the same period a year ago.
• Q2 earnings per share (EPS): $2.37. The iPhone maker earned $2.73 a share in its second quarter last year.
• Fiscal third quarter (Q3) revenue: $52.2 billion. Apple saw sales of $53.3 billion in the same period of 2018.
• Q3 EPS: $2.08. The company posted a per-share profit of $2.34 in last year's third quarter.

In recent trading, Apple's shares were down $4.08, or 2%, to $200.53.

• Read more:
• Apple's App Store fees are coming under increasing pressure from Spotify, Netflix, and regulators. Cutting them could lower its earnings by 10% next year.
• Spotify just painted a big target on Apple's back, and the iPhone maker should worry if antitrust regulators start aiming at it
• A longtime Apple analyst thinks a $10-per-month service for doctors will unlock the Apple Watch's true potential
• Apple now spends 18 times as much on research as it did when it launched the iPhone. These 6 charts show how it became an R&D giant.

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