Apple will announce its third quarter 2014 earnings on Tuesday, July 22 after the close of regular market hours, according to the company’s investor relation page. During its earnings call, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) will discuss the sales of the iPad Air and the Retina iPad mini along with the iPhone 5S and 5C.
Analysts positive on numbers
During the second quarter, iPhone sales came in at 37.4 million; iPads accounted for 19.5 million units, and Macs sales was marginally below 4 million. Apple gave revenue guidance in the range of $33.5 to $35.5 billion and gross margin between 36 and 37%.
R. W. Baird’s analyst William Power reaffirmed its Outperform rating on Apple and raised the price target to $102 from $95 in a report on July 1st. According to Power, the company will post revenue of $37.7 billion and EPS of $1.20 for the third quarter.
Angela Ahrendts is expected to join the conference call, and if she does, it will be her first call in Apple after she joined the company as the head of Retail. Luca Maestri was appointed in place of the longtime exec Peter Oppenheimer as Apple’s head of financials, and could also present the call along with Cook.
New products overdue from Apple
The Cupertino, Calif-based company did not roll over any major product in the first half of 2014, but there are various projects expected to be in the pipeline including iWatch, iPhone 6, overhauled Apple TV and 12 inch Retina MacBook Air. There is not much possibility of Apple discussing these products during the earning’s call.
Next quarter, Apple is expected to usher long awaited products like the iPhone, iPads, Macs and an iWatch, which all are expected to be launched before Christmas. Eddy Cue gave a clue, when he said that the products Apple has in the pipeline this year are the most impressive one in the last 25 years.
Stock of Apple have been in the high trading zone, mostly due to its second quarter results as the iPhone maker is still to showcase any new product. Over the past three months, shares surged almost 20% followed by the company’s updates on its cloud strategy. Market watchers are expecting some of the biggest innovation from Apple this fall and an iTunes ecosystem that will never go out of trend for many years.
