“With the hoopla surrounding Steve Jobs’ appearance at the annual Macworld show out of the way, Apple Inc. watchers will now shift their attention to the company’s fiscal first-quarter earnings report, scheduled for Jan. 22,” Rex Crum reports for MarketWatch.
“Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial estimate Apple will earn $1.62 a share on revenue of $9.47 billion. Such forecasts call for Apple’s per-share earnings to rise 42%, and revenue to climb 33% from the prior-year period,” Crum reports.
MacDailyNews Note: On October 22, as Apple reported its fiscal 4th quarter results, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer provided guidance for first quarter of fiscal 2008, “We expect revenue of about $9.2 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $1.42.”
Crum continues, “Retail research firm NPD Group says Apple’s iPods still maintain a lock on the top spot in U.S. sales of digital music and media players, with as much as 75% of the market. Gene Munster, who covers Apple for Piper Jaffray, said in a recent research note that based on NPD’s data for October and November, the first two months of Apple’s quarter point toward Apple meeting, and possibly exceeding that 25 million unit forecast. Munster holds an buy rating and $250 price target on Apple’s stock.”
“Shebly Seyrafi, an analyst with Caris & Co., said that checks of Apple retail stores and channels show the company’s “strong holiday sales stand in contrast to recent reports showing weak retail sales during the holidays. Seyrafi didn’t give estimates on Apple’s retail growth, but said the company appears to have bucked a trend that showed overall electronics retail sales in the U.S. rising just 2.7% over the same period in 2006,” Crum reports. “Seyrafi said that in Apple’s retail stores, the most popular items have been MacBook laptops, the new iPod touch and the video-playing iPod nano digital media players. Seyrafi also said interest in the iPhone remained high.”
Full article here.
I predict that Apple stock will take a beating on wednesday after tuesday’s earnings release. Another $40 off the stock seems very likely now that there’re serious concerns for consumer confidence. Time to jump ship, IMHO.
In other news, the new Zune is threatening iPod’s dominance. People realize how good of a media player Zune is after just picking it up and playing with it for a while at Best Buy or Wal-mart. Seems like consumers are seeing through all the fud the Mac lemmings have been generating. Jobs won’t be a happy man.
Hey Joey, leave the humor Zune Tang®! He’s the master, and you’re a loser.
Excuse my son Joey. The short bus didn’t show up today and he’s a little upset.
I, however will buy stock on monday.
Tuesday will be the 20th quarter in a row where Apple blows away the estimates on the high side. Wall Street and the pundidiots are clueless. My money is where my mouth is — in AAPL.
IKON,
The market is closed Monday — the MLK holiday. Buy AAPL on Tuesday. The Apple quarterly conference occurs after the market closes on Tuesday.
As I commented in another thread, AAPL is fairly stable in an unstable and changing marketplace. They have market capitalization of 141B. They have 15B cash in the bank. They have four major market areas: computers, iTunes/iPod, iPhone, and now Apple TV movie rentals. Oh yes, and they also have Mr. Steve Jobs helming this magnificent ship into the future. All very good indicators.
I just instructed my broker to buy more AAPL before Tuesday’s earnings report. Yes, its a calculated risk, but I’m in for the very long term. Damn the torpedoes, praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!
@ LinuxGuyAndMacProdigalSon: no problem, I’m not doing it myself. Tuesday it will be then.
@ joey
Thanks for the tip, joey. Should be worth $1 CDN.
The Movie Rental rip-off will be the end of Apple as we know it. Sell now while you can.
ChrissyOne,
“Thanks for the tip, joey. Should be worth $1 CDN.”
What’s is that, about 10¢ American?
“The Movie Rental rip-off will be the end of Apple as we know it.”
iCal’ed. Thanks.
First – We all know AAPL is a great company, firing on all cylinders. Great products today and better products tomorrow. The iPhone ROCKS, and will only get better with the new SDK and corp program. The $$$ for each iPhone contract is like permission to print dollars in the basement in Cupertino! Unfortunately printing dollars is what the Fed is doing to keep banks solvent, solve the huge credit crunch, and keep the economy going. In my opinion what the Fed is doing is going to TANK this market in a big way. AAPL stuck around 160 last week because of options expiration and I think larger players will be moving to the sideline until this all shakes out. Apple is a great company and may have blowout earnings, but fear in the market will take everything down. If you are in for the long-term and don’t need the scrilla – good. If you are playing with your lunch money, you may want to think about being long this market – period. Good luck to all.
SissyOne OUT!
My wife and I did well on our IRAs and 401Ks for 2007.
But, I’m sure it’s gone with the wind now. I don’t even look online. I’ll wait till my next statement to get bummed out. It’s all a scam.
@ SissyOne
Biter.
ChrissyOne,
Tsk, tsk. Such language young lady!
Rule 1. Don’t try to time the market. You’re a little guy, and you’ll get whipsawed by Wall Street.
Rule 2. Sometimes, great performance by a company doesn’t translate into its stock price – immediately. Stock prices usually lag the performance of earnings – up or down – by as much as a couple of quarters. But eventually, the stock’s price will reflect what earnings does.
Rule 3. Don’t get dazzled so much by what Apple reports on Tuesday. Wall Street has already factored that in, unless there is a big surprise that fails to meet or exceeds their projections. If Apple misses earnings targets, its stock price will get unfairly hammered, because expectations for the company are so high. What Wall Street will be watching closely, and you should too, are the earnings projections for the next two quarters – the guidance. It will hardly be mentioned in the news release, but Wall Street cokeheads will react strongly to whether they deem the guidance to be positive or negative. If the guidance is even slightly negative, the stock will get hammered, even if in the future we discover that Peter Oppenheimer was being adroitly conservative.
To the Windows fanboys and stock shorts above my post trying to spread FUD to support your lousy stock positions: fuck you, you miserable unethical bastards. You’re losers.
Remember, the stock market climate of the moment is causing a big downdraft to unrelated stocks. The collapse of the firms underwriting sub-prime mortgages is impacting the whole market, and Apple’s stock price has been pulled downstream as a result. If Apple’s earnings reports and projections are strong on Tuesday, this will make for a decent buying opportunity. Remember, it’s all about earnings and cash. If Apple continues to do what it has done for so many quarters, the stock will remain an excellent investment. It kinda makes me happy that I bought at $12 per share when all the pundits were predicting gloom and doom.
Sometimes the most important thing that Steve Jobs has said has been from the side of his mouth. Near the end of the 2000 Stevenote, I remember him saying, “…we’re gonna invent our way out of this.” If you recall, at the time, Apple stock was getting beaten up. Doubters were still in a chorus. But Steve knew better. He was not going to move the company forward by licensing the Mac OS or trying to merge with someone else. He knew that innovation was the way forward. And looking back, that statement has been rewarded.
See you on Tuesday.
@ Watcher
Here, here!
Steve could pull gold out of the skies Tuesday, and some anal-yst will come up with “uncertainties” and “concerns”.
Anyway it’s a tough market. Hard to say what AAPL will do for the next few months.
People realize how good of a media player Zune is after just picking it up and playing with it for a while at Best Buy or Wal-mart.
The iPod’s biggest threat is that it loses its pop-culture status. Consumer boredom is dangerous stuff.
What happens when iPod becomes… passé? i.e. “Nerd! iPods are so yesterday.”. Something like a Zune just might get a foothold.
Hope Apple has their next great thing ready in the labs, “just in case”….
other side,
I agree, it’s always possible. But if it does happen, I sure hope it isn’t something by MicroSoft.
(aka ichi)
@c1
biter vs. bitter: i’d far rather biteher than be bitter. your wish is my command –where is she, then?
mw: i am love’s warrior, my “needs” are your wishes.
@other side…
You speak like you are trying to create a competing product ie you just wish Apple would leave the iPod alone for a couple of years so you can catch up!
@Watcher
Very well said!
@Watcher,
Good post, but I thought Steve said, “we are going to innovate our way out of this” referring to the dotcom bubble recession.
Anyway, I’m targeting $1.70 eps!