Apple Inc. (Apple) designs, manufactures and markets mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players, with a variety of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications. AAPL is currently trading around $99.47 in a 52 week range of $70.51 – 103.74. The company’s stock has been outperforming the market this year with shares increasing 24.1% year to date. Shares have traded flat since last Monday, with the stock gapping up 1.85% this morning in anticipation of the earnings report today after the bell.
The results are scheduled for release at approximately 5:00 p.m. EST. On average, consensus estimates suggest that Apple will report revenue of $39.8 billion and earnings of $1.31 per share. In the same quarter last year, Apple posted $37.5 billion in revenue and earnings of $1.18 (split adjusted) per share. The company guided for gross margins of between 37% and 38% for the quarter, so Wall Street wants to see them in that range. Analyst estimates for the December quarter suggest Apple will sell around 65.3 million iPhones in the quarter.
Looking at the company’s earnings history, AAPL has rallied 3 of the last 8 quarters. On average, the stock has moved about 5% in the last 8 quarters as a result of earnings releases. This earnings season, market makers are implying about a +- 4.4% move in the stock for the October 24 option chain. Shares have traded above the Ichimoku Cloud on the daily bar since April, having recently moved into the Cloud, indicating that traders might be looking for a technical confirmation for shares to go higher.