Analysts have become increasingly bullish on Apple (AAPL) in the month leading up to the company's second quarter earnings announcement scheduled for Tuesday, April 24, 2012. The consensus earnings per share estimate has moved up from $9.60 a share to the current expectation of earnings of $9.86 a share.
What to Expect:
Wall Street estimates are up 54.1% from a year ago, when Apple reported earnings of $6.40 per share.
Over the past three months, the consensus estimate has increased from $7.97. For the fiscal year, analysts are projecting earnings of $44.05 per share.
Revenue is expected to be $36.49 billion for the quarter, 47.9% higher than the year-earlier total of $24.67 billion. For the year, revenue is projected to roll in at $160.73 billion.
Trends to Watch For:
The company has reported double-digit revenue increases for the past four quarters. Over that span, the company has averaged growth of 69.2%, with the biggest boost coming in the second quarter of the last fiscal year when revenue rose 82.7% from the year earlier quarter.
The company's profit has been growing for the past three quarters. In the most recent quarter, net income rose by more than twofold from the year-earlier period. Net income rose 53.7% in the quarter before that, and more than twofold in the third quarter of the last fiscal year.
Analyst Ratings:
The majority of analysts (94.9%) rate Apple as a buy. This compares favorably to the analyst ratings of its nearest 10 competitors, which average 51.6% buys. Analysts have become more optimistic about the stock recently and the number of buy ratings has risen slightly over the past three months.
Competitors:
Apple designs, manufactures, and markets personal computers, mobile phones, and portable digital music and video players. It also sells a variety of related software, services, peripherals, and networking solutions. One of Apple's main competitors in the computers and peripherals industry is IBM (IBM). Other competitors in the information technology sector include: Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Dell (DELL), and Google (GOOG).
Recent Price Movement:
Over the past quarter, the stock price has risen to $608.34 from $420.30 on January 20, 2012.
Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.
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