“Apple Computer Inc. will release one of the most anticipated technology-earnings reports next week, and by many indications Wall Street won’t be surprised if Apple thoroughly exceeds consensus expectations,” Rex Crum reports for MarketWatch. “Analysts are looking for Apple to earn 37 cents a share on $3.72 billion in sales when it delivers its fourth-quarter results on Oct. 11. As has been the case for many quarters, iPod sales will be the spotlight statistic, but analysts say that the company’s line of Macintosh computers is gaining strength and adding even more muscle to its performance.
Crum reports, “Richard Farmer of Merrill Lynch wrote in research note that he expects Apple’s Mac revenue to grow 25% over the $1.23 billion the desktop and notebook PCs took in a year ago. Farmer attributes the growth to a strong back-to-school selling season, in which Apple offered a free iPod mini with a computer purchase. Farmer said he expects Apple to exceed his own earnings forecast of 37 cents a share.”
Full article here.
Related articles:
Apple invites media to ‘One More Thing’ special event on October 12 – October 04, 2005
Apple to webcast Q4 05 earnings results conference call on October 11 – October 03, 2005
Look for shares of AAPL to drop
If you perscribe to market theory, then you believe that any information is immediately priced into the stock. So people are well aware of Apple’s recent history of destroying guidance and have priced that in as well as strong iPod sales and Mac sales. This creates an imbalance because Apple must continually beat its projections to live up to the hype of analysts.
So, I am looking for AAPL to beat projections but probably set future projects either realistically and strongly warn against overestimating AAPL ability to beat them, or else set them low, which will pissoff the market analysts and in either situation, AAPL will experience a short drop in stock price.
MSD word: tax
MW = probably
As in “Apple will probably blow away all the analyst’s projections.”
How could that be? I recall Rob Enderle saying that his “sources” (apparently the voices in his head) told him that demand for new Macs was taking a nosedive due to the upcoming switch to Intel. Comical Rob E. is never wrong, is he?
</sarcasm>
Buy on the hype, sell on the news…
me:
What kind of word is “perscribe”?
I think you meant “subscribe”. Attempting to look up “perscribe” in the Tiger online dictionary, it suggests “prescribe”, which doesn’t make sense in your context.
lets Lynch Merrill
While it is true that good news for this quarter is already priced into the stock, it is not know how Apple will guide for the next one. The stock could very well pop of they guide higher.
PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!
Ah, it’s good to see Apple finally getting the respect it deserves.
It’s hard to predict how the brokers will react to the earnings report.
Last time, Apple overwhelmed the market with the ipod shipment and profits. The stock jumped up spectacularly. I had sold my sold prior to the earnings report and missed a significant upswing. Since then it has gone up another 10 bucks
If Apple meet the expanded expectations there may be a sell off. If the beat the street by a wide margin we may see the same thing happen as last time.