03:43 PM EDT, 10/04/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Apple's ( AAPL ) fiscal fourth-quarter App Store revenue is expected to have increased by a double-digit percentage, though the metric faces tougher comparisons ahead, UBS Securities said in a note e-mailed Friday.

App Store revenue likely rose 13.4% in the September quarter, marking the fifth straight quarter of growth between 12% and 13%, the brokerage said, citing Sensor Tower data. Sales in the US and rest of the world segments are seen rising 14.4% and 12.8%, respectively. In the corresponding year-ago quarter, the iPhone maker's global App Store sales increased 12.4%, while the metric faced easy comparisons before that, according to UBS.

"Going forward, excluding the outlier January month, we caution that App Store faces tougher (comparisons) in the low-to-mid teens range, thus limiting upside to the services segment," analysts David Vogt and Andrew Spinola said in a note to clients.

In the third quarter, services revenue jumped 14% year over year to an all-time record of $24.2 billion, Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said on an earnings conference call in August, according to a Capital IQ transcript. The company expected fourth-quarter services sales to grow double digits "at a rate similar to what we reported in the first (three) quarters of this fiscal year," Maestri said at the time.

UBS said it's "comfortable" with its and Wall Street's fourth-quarter services sales growth outlooks of 13% and 13.2%, respectively.

The brokerage has a neutral rating on the Apple ( AAPL ) stock, with a $236 price target.

The company is scheduled to report fourth-quarter financial results Oct. 31. Analysts polled by Capital IQ are looking for GAAP earnings of $1.59 a share on revenue of $94.22 billion. A year earlier, Apple ( AAPL ) reported EPS of $1.46 on net sales of $89.5 billion.

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