Apple Inc (AAPL)

[louismg]

iPod, iBook Sales Seen Lifting Apple Q2
04.13.04, 11:57 AM ET

<http://www.forbes.com/markets/2004/04/13/0413automarketscan06.html>

Morgan Stanley increased estimates for Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ), citing better-than-expected sell-through in the fiscal second quarter (ended March) of iPods, Panther OS and iBooks. The research firm raised expectations for the quarter to earnings of 10 cents per share on revenue of $1.82 billion, compared with an earlier estimate for earnings of 9 cents per share on revenue of $1.81 billion. Morgan Stanley raised fiscal 2004 estimates to earnings of 49 cents per share on revenue of $7.69 billion, compared with an earlier estimate for earnings of 45 cents on revenue of $.750 billion. Morgan Stanley said, "Our only concern lies with the possibility of disappointing G5 sales in the period." The firm lowered its second-quarter G5 unit forecast to 181,000 units from 212,000 units. For the remainder of fiscal 2004, Morgan Stanley increased its iPod unit estimates to 3.7 million from 2.8 million. Elsewhere in the sector, the firm said PC demand was not as soft as some expected for the March calendar quarter and noted that pricing activity in both printers and PCs "was below what we've seen in recent quarters." That trend is most likely to benefit Lexmark International (nyse: LXK - news - people ) and Hewlett-Packard (nyse: HPQ - news - people ), Morgan Stanley said. Lexmark and Gateway (nyse: GTW - news - people ) are most likely to see first-quarter revenue and/or second-quarter guidance upside, the firm said. IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) is also a strong candidate for upside given recent strength in enterprise hardware sales, Morgan Stanley said.