Philip Elmer-Dewitt has assembled his quarterly list of analyst predictions ahead of Apple's earnings report this afternoon. The list includes estimates from 59 analysts: 21 "independent" and 38 "institutional" who work for large investment houses or research organizations.
Apple's stock price remains down significantly from its highs of last year, and investors are concerned about Apple's growth prospects across both existing and potential new product lines.
As far as hardware goes, Apple only introduced new MacBook Air models during the past quarter, and only in the final month. The company is not expected to introduce new iPhone models -- its financial bread and butter -- before the last month of Q4.
Two quarters ago, Apple changed how it provides financial guidance, choosing to offer a range of guidance for what the company believes it can achieve, rather than a point prediction. Apple provided guidance for the third quarter for revenue of between $33.5 and $35.5 billion and gross margin between 36% and 37%.
Last year, in the third quarter of 2012, Apple reported a profit of $8.8 billion on $35 billion in revenue.
Apple will announce its earnings for the third fiscal quarter of 2013 (second calendar quarter of 2012) 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. MacRumors will have live coverage of the proceedings.
