Cook will welcome the final financial report before leaving office Bank of America: Chip price increases suppress Apple's short-term gross profit margin.

July 30th will be the last earnings conference call hosted by Tim Cook as CEO of Apple. After this conference call, John Turner will take over as CEO. Prior to Apple's earnings report on July 30th, Bank of America issued a forward-looking research report, maintaining a buy rating on Apple's stock with a target price of $380. The bank expects Apple's second-quarter performance to surpass the consensus expectations of Wall Street. Currently, the global technology industry is facing high storage chip prices, and Apple is also finding it difficult to evade cost pressures. Bank of America estimates that due to the increase in upstream component prices, Apple's hardware product gross margin in the June quarter fell by approximately 190 basis points. As they enter the September quarter, the downward pressure on gross margins will continue to intensify, falling again by 280 basis points. On one hand, the high component prices continue to erode profits; on the other hand, before the release of a new iPhone, Apple enters a period of low production and sales volume, which, combined with other factors, drags down profitability levels. Bank of America believes that this current decline in gross margins is only temporary: after the launch of the all-new iPhone series this fall, Apple's gross margins will greatly recover in the December quarter.