The business stories that matter, by Fortune's Colin Barr
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January 22, 2008, 4:39 pm

Time for a bounce in Apple?

Apple (AAPL) sold off after the tech titan offered a weaker-than-expected second-quarter forecast. Apple beat Wall Street’s expectations for its just completed fiscal first quarter, with earnings rising to $1.58 billion, or $1.76 a share, from the year-ago $1 billion, or $1.14 a share. Analysts were looking for a first-quarter profit of $1.62 a share. “We’re thrilled to report our best quarter ever, with the highest revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said CEO Steve Jobs. “We have an incredibly strong new product pipeline for 2008, starting with MacBook Air, Mac Pro and iTunes Movie Rentals in the first two weeks.”

But the story was less clear cut for the rest of the year. Apple expects to make 94 cents a share for the second quarter on revenue of $6.8 billion. Wall Street was looking for a profit of $1.09 a share on revenue of around $7 billion. The stock tumbled nearly 10 percent in after-hours trading. Even so, given Apple’s recent pullback - at postclose levels, shares are down 30 percent from their recent peak - and the company’s history of posting huge profit growth, it seems like the stock might be due for a bounce when it opens Wednesday.

Apple has preannounced lower earnings than analyst’s forecasts for 7 of the last 8 quarters yet has beaten estimates for the last 12 quarters. This is how they manage the street, underpromise and overdliver. a clear buying opportunity here…

Posted By Anonymous : January 22, 2008 8:07 pm

Due to condition of economy when DOWN is below 12,000. THis is realistic estimated that they could beat it again. That was Apple’s “culture”.

Posted By Anonymous : January 22, 2008 6:36 pm

with the overall economy and the sentiment of investors PLUS lower expected earnings there is no discussion

Posted By Joe orlando, FL : January 22, 2008 5:49 pm

Just as I said. No one will care about current quarter numbers. Expectations are set way to high given the current economic outlook. Nuff said.

Posted By James, Troy MI : January 22, 2008 5:20 pm

How do you expect a bounce up when they forecasted lower income for this quarter. It may be a buying opportunity, but don’t expect it to have a up day.

Posted By Trader, New York NY : January 22, 2008 4:58 pm
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Colin Barr covers business and finance for Fortune.com. Previously he was an editor at TheStreet.com and author of the weekly Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street column, and an editor at Dow Jones Newswires.
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