Apple Inc (AAPL)

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08:58 AAPL Apple: Quarterly preview; Macs seeing slight pause but positioned to re-accelerate in June; iPod sales better than expected - AmTech (92.59 )

AmTech notes AAPL will report March Q results on April 25. Firm believes Macs will likely come in towards the lower-end of expectations due to a pause ahead of Mac OS X Leopard's launch and anticipation of new 8-core Mac Pros.

However, sales of iPods appear better than expected. They believe that following the likely launch of Leopard at its WWDC 2007 conf, Mac sales are positioned to resume accelerated growth.

Firm reduces their near-term Mac unit assumptions but raises their overall ests due to more favorable component pricing, better iPod sales, and resumed Mac growth. For the March Q, they are now modeling $5.12 bln in rev, $0.63 in EPS, 1.4 mln Macs, and 10.3 mln iPods (consensus at $5.2 bln and $0.63. For the June Q, AAPL will likely offer its usual conservative guidance.

Should AAPL shares pull back at on short-term concerns, we advise investors to buy the stock.