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Key Takeaways
- Apple announced its CFO Luca Maestri will step down effective the end of the year, with Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis Kevan Parekh set to fill the role.
- Maestri steps back after serving as CFO for more than a decade, during which the company saw immense growth.
- Citi analysts said Maestri’s departure from the CFO role is “a bit negative” given his success in the position. Analysts at Wedbush and Bank of America said they expect a “seamless” transition.
Apple (AAPL) announced a CFO change on Monday, just ahead of an iPhone 16 launch that could spur a new era of growth for the company. While the C-suite change could feed some investors’ worries, many analysts expect a “seamless” transition.
Luca Maestri will step down as CFO at the end of the year with Kevan Parekh, Apple’s vice president of financial planning and analysis, set to take over the role.
Apple Veteran Luca Maestri Steps Down as CFO
Maestri has been Apple’s CFO for over a decade. During this time the company’s revenue more than doubled and services segment revenue grew more than five times, Apple said in its announcement. He will continue to lead the Corporate Services teams, reporting to CEO Tim Cook.
As CFO, Maestri presided over some big changes to how the tech giant discloses financial information. During Apple’s fourth-quarter earnings call in 2018, Maestri announced changes to the way the company reported financials for its services business but more importantly that it was doing away with disclosing how many iPhones and iPads it sold every quarter going forward.
“The number of units sold in any 90-day period is not necessarily representative of the underlying strength of our business,” Maestri said on that call, adding, “furthermore a unit of sale is less relevant for us today than it was in the past given the breadth of our portfolio and the wider sales price dispersion within any given product line.”
The company continues to report revenue figures from sales of major device categories.
Transition to Kevan Parekh as CFO Expected to be Smooth
Maestri said he has “enormous confidence” in his successor. Parekh has been with Apple for 11 years after holding senior leadership roles at Thomson Reuters (TRI) and General Motors (GM).
Citi analysts said Maestri’s departure from the CFO role is “a bit negative” for Apple given the company’s margin expansion during his tenure. Wedbush and Bank of America analysts said they expect a smooth CFO transition with minimal impact on investors or the company.
Melius Research analysts said the change represents an example of “good succession planning” as they expect the new CEO to maintain the pillars of the investment thesis.
Apple shares were up about 0.5% in recent trading Tuesday. The stock has gained roughly 20% this year.