After the stock market closes on Tuesday, Apple will announce its second quarter 2013 earnings in a conference call with analysts.
In January, Apple gave the following guidance for its fiscal 2013 second quarter:
- Revenue between $41 billion and $43 billion
- Gross margin between 37.5 percent and 38.5 percent
- Operating expenses between $3.8 billion and $3.9 billion
- Other income/(expense) of $350 million
- Tax rate of 26 percent
CNET has reported that Apple expects profits for the quarter to be between $9.23 and $10.23 per share. A Thomson First Call poll of 48 analysts expects Apple to post earnings of $10.12 per share on sales of $42.6 billion.
Apple's estimates for Q2 EPS are lower than the same quarter a year ago ($12.30 per share), while its estimated Q2 revenue is up from the $39.2 billion in the same quarter year ago.
In his Apple Earnings Preview on Seeking Alpha, Bill Maurer noted that even though Apple could announce record quarterly numbers, the stock might still get punished due to the "analyst game" or missing analysts expectations:
Apple will likely post a record second quarter, and most likely guide to a record third quarter. But if the numbers don't come in where analysts have their marks, and Apple doesn't raise the dividend just yet, this stock will continue to be punished. Apple's stock is already down 44.6 percent, and the beating could continue.
You can tune into a live stream of Apple's second fiscal quarter conference on Tuesday, April 23, 2013 at 2:00pm PT/ 5:00pm ET on Apple's Investor Relations website.
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Update: AAPL's fiscal Q2 results are in (press release):
- Revenue $43.6 billion (compared to $39.2b in the year-ago quarter)
- Net profit $9.5 billion, or $10.09/share (compared to $11.6b, $12.30/share)
- Gross margin 37.5 percent (compared to 47.4 percent)
- International sales accounted for 66 percent of the quarter’s revenue
- 37.4 million iPhones sold (compared to 35.1 million)
- 19.5 million iPads sold (compared to 11.8 million)
- 5.6 million iPods sold (compared to 7.7 million)
- 3.9 million Macs sold (compared to 4 million)