Neil Hughes
With no major new products launched in the just-concluded March quarter, analysts on Wall Street don't expect big things from Apple when the company reports its earnings on Wednesday, generally projecting for revenue to be about flat with the same period from a year ago.
Investor expectations cited by analyst Maynard Um of Wells Fargo Securities suggest that Apple will report sales of $43.6 billion for the quarter, which spans the months of January through March. He has pegged the average earnings per share estimate at $10.15 for the quarter.
Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray has generally similar numbers, with his research suggesting Wall Street is projecting revenue of $43.5 billion, and earnings per share of $10.17.
A year ago, the March 2013 quarter marked the first time in a decade that Apple saw its profits decrease.
Both analysts believe Apple will beat those expectations, riding stronger-than-expected sales of both the iPhone and iPad. Munster's "bogies" for the March quarter call for iPhone sales between 38 million and 39 million, and iPad sales of between 20 million and 22 million. Um, meanwhile, sees sales of 39 million iPhones and 21 million iPads.
It may have been a tough quarter for the Mac, as Munster believes sales may have dipped 6 percent year over year to 3.7 million units in March. Um's projections are slightly stronger at 3.85 million units.
It was during this same quarter a year ago that Apple saw its profits fall for the first time in a decade. Despite record second quarter sales of $43.6 billion, Apple saw its profits fall about 18 percent to $9.5 billion, or $10.09 per diluted share.
Apple sold 37.4 million iPhones, 19.5 million iPads, and just under 4 million Macs in the March 2013 quarter. This year, iPhone and iPad sales are expected by Wall Street to rise slightly, while Mac sales are projected to fall.
Analysts are also expecting Apple to announce a slight increase to its share buyback program and quarterly dividend this week. Apple currently pays $3.05 per share to investors each quarter, while the company has already repurchased billions of dollars of its own shares as part of an ongoing program.
Apple will report its March quarter results on Wednesday after markets close, and AppleInsider will have full, live coverage.
Looking ahead to the June quarter, current Wall Street estimates call for Apple to see $38.3 billion in revenue, with gross margins at 36.5 percent, according to Munster.
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67 Comments
Its not shaping up to be a blockbuster year for Apple at all. I may be a big fan and often apologist, but I do not make excuses for no new products since Oct 2013. Furthermore, its not possible for Apple to release everything that people are predicting this year. Not only do they never release the full boat of rumored products that arise during the year, but the amount on the table this year is insane: iWatch, AppleTV, iOS 8, OS 10.10, 4.7" iPhone, updated iPads, Retina MacBook Air, overdue Mac mini, iMac spec bump.... Its not all happening before the end of this year, and as much as I wish it would.
with Apple going down at most of the earnings, lot of people are going for the exit.
[quote name="sog35" url="/t/178724/earnings-preview-wall-street-expects-flat-march-quarter-awaiting-new-products-in-late-2014#post_2519782"]"With no major new products launched in the just-concluded March quarter, analysts on Wall Street don't expect big things from Apple when the company reports its earnings on Wednesday," Than WTF was Google's earnings last week? Google reported $5 earnings per share and Apple is expected to report over DOUBLE that with a share price lower. In what planet is $10
The 4Tst Annual FUDge Bake-off!
It is never enough, nor will it ever be enough money for these clowns. Even if we gave those investors and the wall street crooks printing presses from the treasury department as well as all the ink and paper they could very use they would still bitch about not having enough money. Between 07 and 08 the feds gave the financial markets over 18 trillion dollars to reconcile the debt THEY created on the economy. And where was all that debt? ON EXCEL SPREADSHEETS. They made off with 18 plus trillion in chedda; yet still complain that they ain't got no damn money!!!!!! QE was 85 billion a month or 1 trillion 20 billion a year. Free, socialized money that is still being pumped into the hands of the rich each month. And that ain't enough either. SMDH!