Apple reported fiscal first-quarter earnings Thursday. Analysts are focused on iPhone momentum following a sluggish start to the year for Apple's stock.

Apple on Thursday disclosed its iPhone sales dipped slightly during the holiday-season quarter, signaling a sluggish start to the trendsetting company’s effort to catch up to the rest of Big Tech in the race to bring artificial intelligence to the masses.

Apple reported soft sales of its flagship iPhone during the holiday quarter, but still topped Wall Street forecasts for revenue and earnings per share.

Apple Inc. was downgraded to perform from outperform at Oppenheimer, in the latest sign of caution building ahead of the company’s results.

Apple reported that iPhone sales for the quarter were down nearly 1% from the prior year to $69.1 billion, a miss from the $70.7 billion analysts were projecting, acc