Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[wstera2]

17:19 ET Apple Computer (AAPL) 17.86 -0.37: On call, management sees Q4 sales in line with Q3 number of $1.4 bln... Below consensus estimate of $1.5 bln... Gross margins seen falling by 100 basis points due to mix and more aggressive pricing, especially in Europe... Sees operating expense for Q4 jumping by about $12 mln to $390 mln... End result, sees a "slightly profitable" quarter, prior to non-recurring charges... Note that street was looking for a gain of $0.14... Stock trading at 16.55 after hours.

17:14 ET Apple Computer (AAPL) 17.86 -0.37: On call, company notes revenues and CPU unit shipments fell shy of estimates by $171 mln and 100,000 units... Roughly half of shortfall due to weakness in European sales... Sequential unit shipments in Europe and Japan fell by 24% and 25% respectively... Flat panel IMac and Powerbook sales fell well below estimates as demand dried up late in May and into June... Gross margins flat from quarter to quarter (27.4%) - had expected slight rise... Change in tax rate for quarter from 28% to 18% resulted in one cent benefit to earnings.