(By Mani and Rich) Investors
of Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) are waiting with bated breath for April 24th when the consumer technology giant is
expected to report another strong quarterly results for the January to March
period.
Apple
is reporting results at a time when its shares have been showing mixed trading
for the past several days due to the profit-taking.
Apple
shares surged 63 percent in the past year and 39 percent year-to-date, and lost
about 9 percent since April 10 as investors took profits following a recent
uptick in share price to $600.
A
strong quarterly results would be the much-needed impetus for the stock to get
back in to the positive territory.
Wall
Street expects Apple to earn $10 a share, implying an increase of 56 percent
from last year when it earned $6.40 a piece. The iStock iEstimate is $11.49. The Cupertino, California-based
Apple has topped Street expectations for the 3 out of the past 4 quarters with
margin of difference in double-digits.
Analysts
have been increasingly optimistic on Apple as their consensus earnings
expectations have increased from $8 three months ago to the current $10.
Fourteen analysts have revised their profit expectations for Apple in the last
30 days.
Meanwhile,
Apple is expected to deliver 48.50 percent growth in its quarterly revenues to
$36.63 billion and should continue the trend of generating double-digit revenue
growth in the past four quarters.
In the
preceding first quarter, Apple recorded its highest quarterly revenue and
earnings in its history as it reported a profit of $13.06 billion, or $13.87 a
share, on revenue of $46.33 billion from strong demand for its iPhone 4S, which
was released in October. The company's iPhone sales soared 128 percent to 37.04
million units, and iPad sales surged 111 percent to 15.43 million units. Apple
sold 5.2 million Macs during the first quarter, a 26 percent increase over the
year-ago quarter.
No
wonder, 46 of the 53 analysts covering Apple rate it as "buy" or "strong buy."
Five analysts have a "hold" rating on the stock and 2 analysts rate it "sell."
On the
price target front, the 45 analysts mean target is $678.84, and the median
target is $700. They expect Apple shares to trade at a high of $910 and a low
of $270 during the next 12 months.