Wall Street expects Apple's revenue to grow to $52.9B in March quarter

Apple's recently-concluded March quarter could see revenue once again increase year over year, investors on Wall Street believe, on continued strength of the flagship iPhone 7 lineup.

Analyst Amit Daryanani of RBC Capital Markets issued a note to investors on Monday, a copy of which was provided to AppleInsider, in which he revealed current market consensus for Apple's March quarter is at $52.9 billion in revenue and $2.02 earnings per share.

Daryanani's own estimates are slightly higher, calling for Apple to report $53.5 billion in revenue and $2.04 earnings per share. Both estimates are higher than Apple's March 2016 quarter, when the company saw iPhone sales decline year over year and revenue fell to $50.6 billion.

With Apple's net cash position having reached $159 billion, Daryanani believes the company could announce and sustain a $50-billion-plus annual capital allocation program. He projects that Apple will generate $57 billion in cash in fiscal 2017 — Â more than enough to finance such a program.

He noted that Apple could increase its dividend by 15 percent to get its yield to about 2 percent, and raise its buyback program to about $35 billion annual — Â up from the $30 billion the company spent in fiscal year 2016.

Looking forward to the June quarter, Wall Street consensus estimates call for $45.6 billion in revenue and $1.62 earnings per share. Daryanani is once again slightly ahead of market expectations, projecting $45.8 billion in revenue and $1.63 EPS.

Apple will report the results of its second fiscal quarter of 2017 after markets in the U.S. close on May 2.

RBC Capital Markets has maintained its "outperform" rating for shares of AAPL heading into the earnings report. It has a 12-month price target of $157, but RBC's "upside scenario" suggests Apple stock could go as high as $175, particularly if its services business grows at a faster-than-anticipated rate.

7 Comments

macseeker 541 comments · 8 Years

About 7 years ago

sog35 said:

we see $150 this year. Boom

Or much much higher by the end of the year. It closed at $141.80 today. Could close above $150 by the end of this month.

512ke 781 comments · 19 Years

Is it possible that Samsung's now "iPhone 8 killer" isn't even killing the iPhone 7? Maybe!

NY1822 620 comments · 8 Years

that dividend keeps growing...love it

jcdinkins 114 comments · 12 Years

I think we see a more significant bump on the divi yield this month. Also, $150 will be blown through in short order. This will grow to $160+ soon based on iPhone 8/X hype alone. Experienced ones here have seen this movie before. People still in cash do not want this to happen. They want a dip before the machine kicks in. That's why negative comments/articles tend to come in waves. Obviously anything can happen, but odds favor a continued push upward towards $160+ as we get closer to the reveal date.

gmgravytrain 884 comments · 8 Years

sog35 said:

macseeker said:

sog35 said:

we see $150 this year. Boom

Or much much higher by the end of the year. It closed at $141.80 today. Could close above $150 by the end of this month.

doubt we see $150 by the end of the month. no way.

I tend to agree with you. Apple isn't a FANG stock and that's where most big investors' money will be going. Even Microsoft or Tesla look to have more steam than Apple in terms of share gains. Apple investors are a lackluster sort. They simply don't get excited like those other companies' investors. Tim honestly isn't the type of CEO to be effective in cheerleading like a Musk or Bezos. Apple is going to have to generate massive amounts of revenue to get even small gains. Apple's P/E won't be hitting the stratosphere like Amazon or Tesla. It won't even come close to Microsoft's P/E. No matter what Apple does it will never produce the reaction like the FANG stocks do. I'm hoping for Apple to hold at around $145 and not much more.

That's why I'd like to see Apple grab a stake in Toshiba's memory unit. There may be plenty of growth in that area and should be good for Apple's hardware infrastructure. Apple missed out on a cloud business opportunity and that's a really big miss. Wall Street loves companies with cloud businesses. Wall Street hates smartwatch businesses unless they have some huge dominating market share percentage. Apple keeps getting screwed with its land-locked P/E. Loyal shareholders will have to count on larger dividends in order to get significant financial gains from Apple.

One quick look today will show you the FANG stocks get the love and Apple will get the cold shoulder. All the FANG stock posted significant gains and Apple definitely not so much.