Apple Inc. (AAPL): Analysts Make Tweaks on Estimates

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is back on the analyst watch list this week, what with its impending reveal of the iPad Mini Tuesday, followed by the the company’s quarterly earnings report and conference call Thursday. Several analysts have provided some updated estimates both for the earnings report and guidance for the current quarter, and most of the analysts have slightly adjusted their numbers from previous reports.

Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee moved his iPhone sales estimate up for the earnings report, but had moved a couple other numbers down slightly looking to the future. Wu stated in a research note that he expects Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) to report 27 million iPhone sales in the just completed quarter, up from the consensus of 25-26 million. On the other side of the coin, Wu moved down his estimate for iPad sales to 16.5 million from the original estimate of 17-18 million. For the December quarter, Wu raised his iPad sales figure to 25.5 million from 22.3 million. Wu did write that his margins of 40.5-41.5 percent were below Street estimates of 42-43 percent. He also raised his quarterly EPS to $8.93 (from $8.79) and fiscal-year EPS to $44.39 from $44.25.

Apple Inc (AAPL) is featured in other research notes as well. Susquehanna Financial Group posed an estimate on iPad sales at 13-15 million during the just-completed quarter, and 24-26 million for the current quarter, though 12-13 million of the current iPads, which is down from a 20-22 million consensus.

Also writing about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Monday morning was BTIG, which wrote that is was loping $8 billion of its September quarter revenue forecast to $35.3 billion, with the profit number sliding to $8.75 from a previous $10.90. However, December quarter estimates were raised to $54 billion in revenue and $15.65 EPS from $52.6 billion and $14.03, respectively. For the new fiscal year, the revenue estimate was cut to $184 billion (from $186 billion), but the EPS was raised to $50 from $49.

It does seem to be a sort of mixed bag for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) as it prepares to report its earnings this week – seems that the devil will be in the details to determine whether the report is generally bullish or bearish for the company, which has been going through a bear curve the last month. With the supply-chain issues the company has had, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) could sure use a better-than-expected report to show investors like billionaire fund manager Julian Robertson of Tiger Management that it is overcoming the issues and will be able to keep up with future demand for its devices.