Roundup of Analyst Expectations Ahead of Q2 2012 Earnings Call

Tuesday April 24, 2012 8:55 am PDT by Jordan Golson

Philip Elmer-Dewitt has put together his list of analyst expectations ahead of Apple's quarterly earnings report this afternoon. The list includes estimates from 23 "independent" analysts and 34 "affiliated" analysts who work for large investment houses or research organizations.

As usual, the independent analysts are much more bullish than the affiliated analysts. The independent consensus expects earnings per share (EPS) of $12.74 on revenue of $42.73 billion. The institutional consensus is EPS of $10.18 on $37.06 billion in revenue. The six analysts with the best track record expect $12.49 EPS on $41.47 billion in sales.

2012q2analystexpectations
Click through to Elmer-DeWitt's post at Fortune to see the full-size chart.

Apple will announce its earnings for the second fiscal quarter of 2012 (first calendar quarter) and host a conference call regarding the release this afternoon at 5:00 PM Eastern / 2:00 PM Pacific. The earnings release itself typically comes in around 4:30 PM Eastern.

Last quarter the company announced record-shattering results in a number of areas, including $13.06 billion in profit on revenue of $46.33 billion. For the second fiscal quarter, Apple has issued guidance of $32.5 billion in revenue with profits of $8.50 per share. The company typically exceeds its guidance by a significant margin.

Top Rated Comments

*LTD*

182 months ago

There is simply no way Apple can match, in the quarter immediately following the Christmas quarter, the MONSTER holiday quarter they had.

Apple is great at pulling off miracle quarters that just leave everyone in absolute awe, but to expect them to do it *every* time is rather unrealistic, and to expect them to equal and even *surpass* last quarter is just plain silly. But that's apparently what everyone expects.

All anyone can be really expected to do is beat their own guidance, but Apple has not only set a massive standard for themselves, but they've raised the price of poker for everyone else. There's also the perennial expectation that Apple will lift everyone's boat.

They'll do it and keep doing it for the foreseeable future, but let's keep post-Christmas quarter expectations (this time around) within the realm of sanity. They'll easily be up YoY, though. But it's likely that will no longer be good enough for anyone. We've all been spoiled.

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)