Apple earnings: So how’d the analysts do?

“The professional analysts who track Apple (AAPL) for banks and brokerage houses may have been surprised by the $15.7 billion in revenue the company reported Tuesday — an all-time record for Apple in what is traditionally one of its weakest quarters,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.

“But the blogger-analysts we polled in advance of the earnings report were not,” Elmer-DeWitt reports. “In fact, their consensus estimates for both revenue ($15.74 billion) and earnings ($3.66 per share) were remarkably close to the actual results ($15.7 billion and $3.51, respectively).”

Elmer-DeWitt reports, “Yes, once again the amateurs have beaten the professionals at their own game, although it must be said that the pros did considerably better in our Apple Earnings Smackdown this quarter than they ever have before… We’ve ranked the analysts by the combined accuracy of their revenue and EPS estimates.”

Full article, with a chart that tracks the analysts’ performance, here.