Inside Apple’s Upcoming Quarterly Earnings Release
By Derek Hoffman
October 13 2011
Apple, Inc. Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet
S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, October 18, 2011. Apple offers a range personal computers, mobile devices, and portable digital music and video players. The company also sells related software, services, peripherals, and networking solutions.
Wall St. Earnings Expectations:
The average estimate of analysts is for net income of $7.22 per share, a rise of 55.6% from the company’s actual earnings for the same quarter a year ago. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved up from $6.35. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved up. It has risen from $7.01 during the last month. For the year, analysts are projecting profit of $27.74 per share, a rise of 83.1% from last year.
Past Earnings Performance:
The company has beaten estimates the last four quarters and is coming off a quarter where it topped forecasts by $1.98, reporting net income of $7.79 per share against a mean estimate of profit of $5.81 per share.
Wall St. Revenue Expectations:
On average, analysts predict $29.24 billion in revenue this quarter, a rise of 43.8% from the year ago quarter. Analysts are forecasting total revenue of $108.98 billion for the year, a rise of 67.1% from last year’s revenue of $65.22 billion.Analyst Ratings: Analysts are bullish on this stock with 37 analysts rating it as a buy, none rating it as a sell and three rating it as a hold.
A Look Back:
In the third quarter, profit rose more than twofold to $7.31 billion ($7.79 a share) from $3.25 billion ($3.51 a share) the year earlier, exceeding analyst expectations. Revenue rose 82% to $28.57 billion from $15.7 billion.
Key Stats:
The company has enjoyed double-digit year-over-year percentage revenue growth for the past four quarters. Over that span, the company has averaged growth of 65.1%, with the biggest boost coming in the second quarter when revenue rose 82.7% from the year earlier quarter.
The company has seen net income rise in three straight quarters. Net income rose 94.8% in the second quarter and 77.7% in the first quarter.
Competitors to Watch: Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE), Intl. Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMCI), Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK).
Stock Price Performance: During July 19, 2011 to October 12, 2011, the stock price had risen $25.34 (6.7%) from $376.85 to $402.19. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between July 14, 2011 and July 26, 2011 when shares rose for nine-straight days, rising 12.8% (+$45.64) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between September 23, 2011 and October 4, 2011 when shares fell for eight-straight days, falling 7.9% (-$31.80) over that span. Shares are up $79.63 (+24.7%) year to date.
