“Analysts tend to think of the iTunes store as a metaphor,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt for Fortune. “It’s a ‘moat’ that protects Apple (AAPL) from competitors. Or something “sticky” — like honey or flypaper — that keeps fickle customers from flying away.”
“But since Apple reclassified its revenues in January and consolidated iTunes, Software and Services into one line item, it’s become clear that iTunes is also a large and fast-growing business in its own right, one that generated $12.9 billion in fiscal 2012,” P.E.D. reports. “If iTunes had been listed separately in the current Fortune 500, it would have come in at No. 218, ahead of Texas Instruments, Nordstrom and Con Ed.”
P.E.D. reports, “iTunes estimates were optional in our quarterly polling, but so far we’ve received numbers from 40 analysts — 22 Wall Street professionals and 18 amateurs. Their estimates ranged from the high of $5.6 billion submitted by Jefferies’ Peter Misek to a low of $3.15 billion from Posts at Eventide’s Robert Paul Leitao, who runs the Braeburn Group of independent analysts.”
Check out the 40 analysts’ estimates in the full article here.
“Check out the 40 analysts’ estimates …”
Yeah, that’s just what I want to do on a Sunday afternoon.
I just did. Interesting…
If its not a hundred or more to check on a Sunday Afternoon, forget it. 😉
22 analysts and 18 interns. Last time it was 22 and 17…
I guess since it’s the interns getting all these numbers, they should be pretty accurate.
Almost every aspect of Apple’s business is undervalued and discounted by the analysts and the investment community. Even when Apple consistently brings in huge numbers, everyone says that it was just a bubble and Apple can’t sustain it.
MSFT and GOOG, AAPL’S two biggest rivals, miss big and MSFT tanks, but AAPL goes down the same as GOOG. WTF. Analysts are idiots. Why does anyone care about their expectations of any company? MFT went down so much because they only made 3.5 billion dollars in profit that quarter and Surface proved to be the loser everyone already knew it was. Google sits in the stratosphere, when the only thing it does right is search and resultant desktop advertising. It is given credit for taking over mobile with Android, which isn’t a coherent operating system and does not make any money for it directly. AAPL practically prints money, has successful business after successful business and it’s stock tanks because of rumors from analysts getting payola or just too dumb to nose breathe.
Why u asking me?