“The current consensus estimates as published by Thompson Financial apparently do not in any way contemplate sales of the iPad,” Zaky writes. “Seasonally speaking, Q2 is generally Apple’s weakest quarter and so naturally one would expect Q3 to outperform. And while the consensus does in fact reflect this point in the revenue estimates, analysts seem to believe that Apple will see a sequential decline in EPS from earning $3.33 in Q2 to $2.98 in Q3. Something I find to be highly unlikely unless we see a massive collapse in Apple’s gross margin. Yet, even though the bump up in the consensus revenue estimates from $13.499 billion in Q2 to a forecasted $14.37 billion in Q3 contemplates a more favorable seasonal quarter, it doesn’t seem to take into account the 3 million iPads Apple is likely to sell this quarter, and the 9.3 million iPhones that Apple is on track to sell as a result of massive demand for the iPhone 4.”
Zaky writes, “After a cursory look into Apple’s Q3, I’m looking for Apple to report earnings of $3.78 on $15.371 billion in revenue versus the consensus of $2.98 in EPS on $14.730 billion in revenue. That’s a $1 billion beat on the top line, and an $0.80 beat on the bottom line.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “GetMeOnTop” for the heads up.]