Quarterly earnings season ticks on this week, with Apple entering the fiscal spotlight this afternoon as it announces its fiscal first-quarter earnings — including numbers for the peak holiday shopping season.
If analyst projections are right, Apple’s revenue should top $57.45 billion, up 5 percent year over year, with earnings of $14.07 per share, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters.
The company is coming off a holiday season that investors hope has been filled with consumers walking home carrying new Macs, iPads and iPhones, especially in light of Apple’s launch of new iPads and iPhones.
There are some signs already pointing to a strong quarter, as Samsung reported lower than expected quarterly earnings, in part because of increased competition from Apple. Meanwhile, Apple reported that 2013 was the best year for software sales in the history of its iOS App Store, with consumers spending $10 billion on apps for their iOS devices worldwide.
Meanwhile, Carl Icahn is still aggressively pushing for the company to adopt a broader share buyback plan, and recently increased his stake in Apple to $3 billion. While Apple’s board and executive team haven’t been receptive to Icahn’s frequent insisting that the company should buy back some of the shares it has issued, his recent purchase means that it will almost certainly be a topic of conversation on today’s analyst conference call.
The issue of Apple’s inventory of its high-end Mac Pro will also probably come up as a topic of conversation, since the machine, which is made in Austin, Texas, is currently backordered until March.
As of this report, Apple shares are trading at $550.25, up from the previous close of $546.07.
