With Apple’s Q3 earnings call starting at 2pm PT/5pm ET today (which we’ll be covering live, of course), Fortune has posted the results of its usual quarterly survey of analyst predictions.
The executive summary is that the analysts are pessimistic, though in line with Apple’s guidance.
There is consensus that year-on-year revenues will be either flat or slightly down, but interestingly the consistency we saw in the predicted numbers for Q2 (which turned out to be under-estimates) have disappeared.
Here’s the full set of estimates (institutional analysts in blue, independents in green, Apple’s high and low guidance in red):
As always, it’s the institutional estimates that tend to drive the share price, so the key numbers the market is looking for in terms of sales are these:
And translated into the financials:
iPad: 17.62M
iPod: 4.98M
Mac: 3.86M
If Apple hits or beats these numbers, the stock price will likely rise; if performance falls short, the stock price likely falls.
Gross margin: 36.6 percent
Earnings Per Share (EPS): $7.29
If you want to listen in to the call, Apple is offering a streaming audio link.
