Apple Forecasted to Report Record Holiday Quarter Amid Concerns of Slowing iPhone Sales

[MacRumors]

Apple will announce its first quarter earnings tomorrow for the 2016 fiscal year, a three-month period that ended December 31, 2015. Financial analysts predict Apple's quarterly revenue will range between $74.6 billion and $82.4 billion, but some market watchers are unsure if Apple will top the record 74.5 million iPhones it sold in the year-ago quarter, due to perceived lower iPhone 6s sales.

iPhone 6s sales concerns might be more evident in Q2 2016, however, as Apple's newest products and services, including the Apple Watch, Apple Music and the new Apple TV, coupled with the busy holiday shopping season, fuel projections that Apple will again report the most profitable holiday quarter in not only the iPhone maker's nearly 40-year history, but of any company ever.

Apple's guidance is between $75.5 billion and $77.5 billion in quarterly revenue, while the consensus among professional analysts is around $76.5 billion.

Fortune has compiled a list of predictions from both amateur and professional analysts, along with Apple's guidance in orange.

Apple has never experienced a year-over-year decline in iPhone sales, so the next few quarterly earnings results will be interesting to follow. MacRumors will be providing live coverage of Apple's Q1 2016 earnings conference call with CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri on Tuesday at around 2:00 p.m. Pacific (5:00 p.m. Eastern). The earnings report will be released around 1:30 p.m. Pacific (4:30 p.m. Eastern).

Article Link: Apple Forecasted to Report Record Holiday Quarter Amid Concerns of Slowing iPhone Sales

 

[spiderman0616]

No matter what Apple says tomorrow, good or bad, Wall Street and the tech media are out for blood. It will be spun as negative as possible. If iPhones grow again, it will not be by enough units. If they don't grow, it will be doom and gloom for the company in general. They are in a can't win situation when it comes to earnings announcements.

 

[rdlink]

No matter what happens I can only guarantee one thing: I will have less equity tomorrow at the close of trading than I did at open.

 

[mabaker]

They should also include the gazillions of macrumors' amateur CEOs and analysts in their predictions. Just for fun.

 

[chakdey]

record sales or not, get ready for the stock to drop.

 

[amirite]

I really hope they exceed expectations. AAPL shareholders' nerves could do with a break for a while. .....please?

 

[furi0usbee]

Somewhere in Ireland there is a little leprechaun jumping for joy!

 

[ctdonath]

No matter what happens I can only guarantee one thing: I will have less equity tomorrow at the close of trading than I did at open.

You're guaranteed it will go low.
You're sure it will, subsequently, rise.
Then apply the rule: buy low, sell high.

 

[Thunderhawks]

record sales or not, get ready for the stock to drop.

And, according to iSupply cost estimates Apple profit is 75 billion.

 

[NormChuck]

If they sell 80 million iPhones but avg price went down doom and gloom will be shouted all around.

 

[Joe Rossignol]

No matter what Apple says tomorrow, good or bad, Wall Street and the tech media are out for blood. It will be spun as negative as possible. If iPhones grow again, it will not be by enough units. If they don't grow, it will be doom and gloom for the company in general. They are in a can't win situation when it comes to earnings announcements.

Pretty much, even though Apple will likely report the best quarter by any company ever for the second October-December quarter in a row.

 

[Deuce on the Clock]

Look for a mass sell off these next few months from all the big fund investors. Tim might even throw in a biuyback to slow the bleeding of the price. 85-90 will be the price the coming year. If it goes over 100-110 big investors playing the game to take profits. Should be the last year of record profits for a while if things don't change dramatically and stop relying on the phone as the money maker.

 

[naeS1Sean]

Sometimes I wish iPhone sales would slow down. Maybe it would bring Apple back to earth and maybe they would give us better products.

Imagine what phones and technology would be like if money and greed weren't in the picture. I'm dreaming, I know. Just a thought.

 

[KPOM]

More important will be the guidance for Fiscal Q2.

 

[spiderman0616]

Pretty much, even though Apple will likely report the best quarter by any company ever for the second October-December quarter in a row.

I'm willing to bet that USA Today Tech, Business Insider, MSNBC, The Verge, and countless others already have their click bait doom and gloom articles written. They don't care about the facts. The narrative has been set up for the last couple of months "based on supply chain rumors" and they will make the facts fit the narrative as opposed to the other way around. Their mouths are already watering at how much money they're going to make on clicks over the next couple of weeks.

 

[iLunar]

I really hope they exceed expectations. AAPL shareholders' nerves could do with a break for a while. .....please?

Even if they do exceed expectations (which they have forever), it's never been enough for Wall Street. I read a great piece on titled something like APPL vs Apple, and it was how APPL the stock and Apple the company have to operate as two separate entities. The goals of Apple the company are very different than APPL the stock.

ETA: Here's a link to the article: http://www.aboveavalon.com/notes/2016/1/11/the-two-apples

 

[I7guy]

Look for a mass sell off these next few months from all the big fund investors. Tim might even throw in a biuyback to slow the bleeding of the price. 85-90 will be the price the coming year. If it goes over 100-110 big investors playing the game to take profits. Should be the last year of record profits for a while if things don't change dramatically and stop relying on the phone as the money maker.

Looking for a downturn in the entire market with Apple along for the ride.
[doublepost=1453743251][/doublepost]

Sometimes I wish iPhone sales would slow down. Maybe it would bring Apple back to earth and maybe they would give us better products.

Imagine what phones and technology would be like if money and greed weren't in the picture. I'm dreaming, I know. Just a thought.

If anything, this would accelerate the pace of which Apple releases products.

 

[American Hero]

Would be funny to see Apple miss their outlook so we can watch the stockholders go into a panic attack.

 

[quackers82]

I'm more interested in what the Mac sales will be rather than iPhone sales.

 

[spiderman0616]

I'm more interested in what the Mac sales will be rather than iPhone sales.

I'm with you there. As someone who still finds significant value in keeping my Macbook Pro (rather than going full blown iPad for everything), I love seeing Mac sales rise.

 

[American Hero]

Looking for a downturn in the entire market with Apple along for the ride.
[doublepost=1453743251][/doublepost]
If anything, this would accelerate the pace of which Apple releases products.

And also accelerate the pace of Apple firing Tim Cook.

 

[Deuce on the Clock]

Looking for a downturn in the entire market with Apple along for the ride.
[doublepost=1453743251][/doublepost]
If anything, this would accelerate the pace of which Apple releases products.

Agreed, Apple will fall hard with the market. Tough year for all ahead.
[doublepost=1453743590][/doublepost]

And also accelerate the pace of Apple firing Tim Cook.

I would not want Tim's job for any amount of money in the world. He is getting it from all sides and the pressure must be intense. He is doing the best he can riding a storm that is blazing fast. Don't judge those whose shoes you haven't walked in.

 

[HenryDJP]

With this news you can count on a 16GB 4" iPhone with 1GB of ram. Cuz Apple knows their customers will buy.

 

[American Hero]

Agreed, Apple will fall hard with the market. Tough year for all ahead.
[doublepost=1453743590][/doublepost]
I would not want Tim's job for any amount of money in the world. He is getting it from all sides and the pressure must be intense. He is doing the best he can riding a storm that is blazing fast. Don't judge those whose shoes you haven't walked in.

Considering he could retire after a year with his salary, I'd take it no problem. A lot of people take it on all sides as a manager or executive.

 

[LordVic]

Apple will have a great quarter. During holiday season this year, In Canada at least, iPhones were absolutely flying off the shelves. Best Buy in particular was sold out well into the start of boxing week. Granted, it's also the first time I'v ever seen iPhones deeply discounted, but it worked at moving units.

Best Buys and other retailers in Canada were offering iPhone 6s' for 0 down on 2 year contracts during this period. Its a first I've ever noticed iPhones discounted like this.

But this will mean that Apple's portion is retained and they sold lots of units.


As for the market investors? I want apple to continue it's success, but I want them to start slowly shrinking those profits. I want these rich fat cat billionaires to sweat a little like the rest of us are. I want them to stop market manipulation for their own greed. There's going to be a point in time where companies can't continue to have record breaking profits non stop and this unreasonable Demand that Apple continuously do so is only going to hit the end user when Apple continues to raise prices in order to continuously hit margins purely for the sake of hitting those margins. Do we really want to go back to the day where Apple is synonymous with the Apple Tax again? Especially just to please billionaire stock market manipulators