Apple shares are trading higher Tuesday as the Street continues to ratchet up expectations for the company’s June quarter earnings report, now a week away.
The Wall Street consensus view is that Apple (ticker: AAPL) will post revenue of $72.9 billion, up 22% from a year earlier, with profits of $1 a share. When it reported its March quarter results, Apple didn’t issue specific financial forecasts for the June quarter, but said it expects “strong double digit” revenue growth on a year-over-year basis. Management also predicted a bigger quarter-over-quarter decline than in prior years, due to the later launch last year of the iPhone 12 and continuing component shortages.
Apple has said gross margin for the quarter will be between 41.5% and 42.5%, and that supply constraints affecting Macs and iPads will trim top-line revenue by as much as $4 billion.
In a research note Tuesday, UBS analyst David Vogt lifted his outlook for the quarter, citing strong demand for both iPhones and Macs. His forecast for the quarter went to $74.7 billion in revenue and profits of $1.01 a share, from $71.3 billion and 95 cents a share. Vogt repeated his Buy rating, and raised his target for the stock price to $160, from $155. He said revenue would be higher still were it not for supply constraints.
Apple shares on Tuesday were up 2.6%, to $146.15, while the S&P 500 had gained 1.6%.
Vogt now sees iPhone unit shipments for the September 2021 fiscal year of 227 million, up from 225 million. For fiscal 2022, he now expects shipments of 225 million phones, up from 220 million. He boosted his Mac forecast for the quarter to 6 million units, from 5.5 million.
Monness Crespi Hardt analyst Brian White repeated a Buy rating and $180 stock-price target, saying that the Street consensus for the quarter is far too conservative. He expects revenue of $80.33 billion, which would be up 35% year over year, with profits of $1.16 a share. That would still be a 10% sequential decline, and slightly steeper than the average 8% dip over the past four June quarters, he noted.
White’s forecasts for June quarter revenue are $39.1 billion for the iPhone (the Street consensus is $33.9 billion); $9.6 billion for Macs (way above the Street at $7.8 billion); $6.9 billion for iPads (the Street’s call is $7.2 billion); $7.5 billion for wearables, home, and accessories (consensus is $7.8 billion); and $17.2 billion for services (vs. the consensus call of $16.2 billion).