Collectively, it was a sign that the technology may have already bottomed out and is starting to recover, said Dave Harden, the chief investment officer at Summit Global, a firm near Salt Lake City with about $2 billion under investment that includes Apple in her participations. . “These guys still deliver,” Mr. Harden said. “They are acting responsibly and going through a volatile period.” The better-than-expected results boosted the companies’ share prices and jolted the stock market, even as Alphabet and Microsoft fell short of Wall Street’s expectations. The results made it clear that companies are not immune to problems such as supply chain disruptions, rising costs and changes in customer spending. But their behemoths are not as vulnerable to the various challenges sweeping the economy as smaller companies like Twitter and Snap, the owner of Snapchat. During calls with analysts, the companies’ CEOs warned investors about the coming months, using words like “challenges” and “uncertainty.” Concerns about the economy are leading some of them, including Alphabet, to slow the pace of hiring and take other precautions, but none have said they plan to start making layoffs. Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s chief executive, saw the economic slowdown as an opportunity, saying the company would sharpen its focus and “be more disciplined as we go forward.” He added, “When you’re in development mode, it’s hard to always make time to make all the adjustments you need to make, and moments like this give us an opportunity.” Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, said the company still expects double-digit revenue growth next year.Credit…Kyle Johnson for The New York Times “This is not a recession forecast,” said Sean Stannard-Stockton, president of Ensemble Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm with $1.3 billion under management. “If we avoid a severe recession, it’s clear that many of these businesses will see growth pick up again.” Although Apple and Alphabet did not provide guidance, the companies bought back tens of billions of dollars of stock during the period. Apple’s $21.7 billion purchase and Alphabet’s $15.2 billion purchase testify to the companies’ belief that their businesses will continue to grow in the coming years. Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, was an outlier among the biggest tech companies, reporting its first drop in quarterly revenue since going public a decade ago. Its woes have been the result of growing competition from TikTok, which has wiped out users and advertisers, and challenges from Apple’s iPhone privacy changes. The advertising market is forecast to grow 8.4% this year and 6.4% in 2023, according to market research firm GroupM. Facebook’s sales growth last year, when quarterly sales jumped 56%, made it “unthinkable to keep growing,” said Brian Wieser, president of business intelligence at GroupM. Apple’s biggest obstacle came from its reliance on China to manufacture most of its devices. In April, the company said it would lose about $4 billion in sales due to the shutdown of factories in Shanghai where it makes iPads and Macs. However, it managed to increase its iPhone sales in the period by 3 percent and set a quarterly record for the number of people who switched from Android smartphones to iPhones. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said Apple saw “a cocktail of headwinds,” including supply constraints, a strengthening dollar that has pushed up device prices overseas and a slowing global economy. “When you think about the number of challenges in the quarter, we feel very good about the growth we’ve delivered,” Mr Cook said. He added that the company would invest through a recession, but “to do so consciously recognizing the reality of the environment.”
