So just how good a quarter will Apple have?
Independent analyst Andy Zaky thinks the answer is "very good" indeed.
His numbers bear a close look because of how competitive he tends to be with his more professional Wall Street counterparts who get paid a fortune to handicap these results.
Zaky has been closer than most in the past, and while he says he owns no position on Apple headed into tonight's numbers, he may in fact play the news either before or after it hits the tape.
To wit, here's what he's expecting: $2.39 a share on a $13.068 billion (consensus, by the way, is $2.07 on $12 billion.) On a unit by unit basis, and this is where Zaky has shined in the past, he's looking for 3.25 million Macs; 8.55 million iPhones and 21 million iPods.
Over at WhisperNumber.com, John Scherr says the rumblings are $2.14 a share, but that the whisper number was six cents lower just five days ago. Can you say "froth?" Scherr also says that Apple has exceeded the whisper number in the past 16 quarters, 100 percent of investors polled expect Apple to report a positive outlook, and the average price move following earnings is up 5 percent in 30 trading days. The company has beat the whisper in 33 quarters, met the whisper in 1 quarter and missed it in 12 quarters.
Just some additional context to add to what I posted last Friday. Apple's numbers will come at 4:30p Eastern.
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