Wall Street to focus on outlook when Apple reports earnings on July 19

“Apple Computer Inc. delivers its fiscal third-quarter results July 19, and after a period in which the stock fell almost 10%, Wall Street will be looking for evidence that sales and profit were strong and that the company’s poised for more growth,” Rex Crum reports for MarketWatch.

“Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call are estimating that Apple will earn 44 cents a share on $4.4 billion in revenue. Such figures indicate rises of 44% in Apple’s earnings and 25% in revenue compared with the year-earlier period,” Crum reports.

“Most analysts aren’t expecting any major surprises from the report, which means what the company says about its fourth-quarter outlook will go a long way toward building up or tearing down enthusiasm for the company and its stock through the rest of the summer,” Crum reports. “Analysts currently are forecasting Apple to earn 52 cents a share on $4.98 billion in revenue for its fourth quarter.”

Crum reports, “Mac sales will also get some attention, especially since Apple in April released Boot Camp, a free software download that enables its new computers with Intel Corp. microprocessors run Microsoft Corp.’s Windows XP operating system.”

Full article here.

Related articles:
CSFB Analyst: Apple could warn on 4th quarter profit and revenue – July 12, 2006
Apple to hold Q3 06 Quarterly Earnings Call on July 19 – July 05, 2006

13 Comments

  1. I have a mixture of excitement and dread. Excited because the numbers are going to be very good. Dread because the assholes who pay attention will screw things up they will probably have expected better.

    MDN word: “just” as in I JUST punched an analyst in the mouth or Analysts ability to sway AAPL without JUST cause is not JUST.

  2. Hold on a sec. ¨Analysts aren’t expecting any major surprises from the report¨ Of all the dumb things I´ve heard in a news report, this has got to top the list. Why, exactly, would someone expect a surprise? A surprise is, by definition, unexpected. This report is complete and utter tautological crap.

  3. Wow, analysts are already forcasting aapl’s 4th quarter sales and earnings and the third quarter results aren’t even announced yet. And, of course… if Apple’s own guidance isn’t as high as these premature predictions, the stock will of course tank. It’s amazing that this company, which keeps reporting improved quarter-by-quarter earnings over the previous year is now worth on the market a little over half of what it was in January. What’s wrong with this picture? Hell, if I had some spare cash I’d be buying and holding aapl right now.

  4. Charles,

    You might be surprised to find that a surprise can be either expected or unexpected. An expected surprise is – in itself – unsurprising, but if the content of the unsurprising surprise is unknowable then it would be either a satisfying surprise -or a disappointing one (which is also a surprise, just an unwanted one). Of course, NOT getting a surprise, when a surprise is expected, is also a surprise – and is also unexpected. It’s also possible to respond with indifference to a surprise – whether expected or unexpected – and this would be an unexpected surprise for the person who gave it.

  5. I will not try to catch a falling knife, but I would not sell either. The general market psychology is bad and even if the Mac appears to be selling well and starting to take market share, the stupid anal-ists will find some argument to ignore it. At some point a key analyst will note the strong advance in Mac sales and the herd will turn and drive AAPL way up. I will be waiting for some indicators of sales in the back to school time frame. If those are strong and AAPL has not significantly rebounded, I will buy some more.

    Apple does not pay dividends. So worrying about pennies of earnings in one quarter is of interest mainly to speculators. I am a long term investor. Market growth with leadership, good margins, innovation, a drive for excellence of design and understanding the customer are what I look for. If the Wall Street anal-ist speculators push the stock down on small wiggles in the statistics, that only creates buying opportunities for me.

  6. Not sure if you will get back to this thread, but i’ll post anyway……….

    Too Hot! – “a blindfolded chimpanzee throwing darts at the NYSE listings could pick stocks as well as the Wall Street pros”
    by Burton G. Malkiel in his book: A Random Walk Down Wall Street.”

    I actually saw a segment on TV about that very same thing! Quite hilarious. If I remember correctly, the analyst did win in the end, but only by a small margin. Great Stuff.

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