Just caught something interesting in Apple's latest earnings that's worth thinking through. The iPhone momentum is actually back, and it's pretty impressive after those couple of sluggish years everyone was worried about.

So here's what happened in their fiscal Q1 – iPhone revenue jumped 23% to $85.27 billion, which absolutely crushed analyst expectations of $78.65 billion. Tim Cook literally called demand "staggering." That's the strongest growth they've seen since right after the pandemic in 2021. The iPhone still dominates their revenue mix at nearly 60% of total sales.

The rest of the product lineup was mixed though. iPad sales climbed 6% to $8.6 billion with half their customers being new to the product, which is solid. But Mac sales actually fell 7% year-over-year to $8.4 billion, and wearables dipped 2% to $11.5 billion. Services were strong though – up 14% to $30 billion. China was a bright spot too, with revenue jumping 38%.

Here's where it gets interesting from a valuation angle. Total revenue hit $143.76 billion (up 16%), and EPS jumped 19% to $2.84, both beating expectations. The company's also guiding for 13-16% growth in fiscal Q2. On paper, this looks like Apple fixed its two biggest problems – weak iPhone sales and China weakness. Strong operational momentum across the board.

But here's the thing – the stock barely moved after these results. It's up less than 10% over the past year and actually down about 5% year-to-date. The reason? Valuation. Apple's trading at a forward P/E of around 31x based on fiscal 2026 estimates and 28x for 2027. That's pricier than a lot of the other mega-cap names. The stock ran up during the weaker results period, which pushed the multiple higher. So even with this impressive operational turnaround, the stock looks fairly valued from here – maybe even a bit stretched depending on your risk tolerance.

The market's basically saying: yeah, the business is firing on all cylinders, but we already priced that in. So if you're thinking about adding exposure to tech right now, might be worth checking what other opportunities are out of stock or worth watching on platforms like Gate. Sometimes the real opportunities hide in the names that aren't getting all the headlines.