Apple's (AAPL) earnings report Thursday after market close beat Wall Street expectations, even as the world's most valuable company reported full-year profits that were well below a year ago. Apple’s YoY revenue declining streak was not expected to halt in Q4 amid what was referred to as a lukewarm reception to its iPhone 15. Wall Street expected revenue of $89.28 billion, down 0.97% from $90.15 billion in the year-ago quarter. That would mark a fourth straight quarter of annual revenue drop. Quarterly revenue was expected to climb 9.14% from the $81.8 billion reported for the seasonally weak June quarter.

But in reality, the Silicon Valley tech giant surprised on the upside. Apple's sales and profit performance as of September 30 exceeded expectations, with total revenue of $89.5 billion and earnings per share of $1.47, higher than analysts' consensus expectations of $89.3 billion and $1.39 per share, respectively.

Apple also reported product sales of $67.2 billion (forecast: $67.9 billion), including iPhone sales of $43.8 billion (forecast: $43.8 billion) and revenue from its high-margin services division of $22.3 billion (forecast: $21.4 billion). While Apple's quarterly revenue fell nearly 6% YoY, in part due to a 34% decline in MacBook computer sales, its net income rose 11% YoY to $23 billion.

Apple said on Thursday it would pay a quarterly dividend of $0.24 per share, in line with analysts' expectations of $0.24 and the same payout as it had paid in the previous two quarters. At P/E of less than 30 AAPL may look as a bargain again.