January 19th, 2000

[6:00 AM] Apple Whisper Number Significantly Higher Than Consensus Call by Bryan Chaffin Update: We have now set up to our Live Coverage page for the press conference. We will be bringing a full analysis of the results on Thursday morning. A Business Wire report says that Apple is making the rounds at WhisperNumber.com. Whisper numbers are a relatively recent phenomenon in the stock business where supposed insiders or others privy to inside information start whispering what a company's actual financial results will be before the official announcement. There has been lots of stock movement associated with whisper numbers, as traders anticipate higher or lower earnings for a particular company and move accordingly. This has been partially fueled by the fact that whisper numbers have often proven to be very accurate. WhisperNumber.com is a web site that tracks and reports these numbers. Apple will be releasing their actual results today at 2:00 PM PST. The consensus call among professional analysts is that Apple will report a profit of some US$.88 per share. WhisperNumber.com is predicting a profit of US$1.00 per share, significantly higher than the consensus call. On Tuesday, Apple was one of the five most active whisper numbers, though the company fell off the Top 5 soon after the markets closed. Apple is expected to announce sales of US$2.1 Billion with 1.35 million Macs sold. The current whisper number for Apple can be found at the WhisperNumber.com web site. For more stories on Apple's financial performance, check out our Apple Stock Watch Special Report. The Mac Observer Spin: US$1.00 per share is a very high number indeed, one that some analysts think is just ridiculous. Also, it should be pointed out that some bears, traders counting on the market to go down, will spread information on a company that is way to high in order to make traders think the company is not doing well when they actually meet the consensus number. We are not saying that is necessarily the case here, but the warning needs to be given. Another mitigating factor is that just about anyone can report a "whisper number" for any company at this site. There is nothing in place to verify these postings. Still, Wall Street does tend to at least pay some attention to them. Apple has pulled several earnings surprises since Steve Jobs took the helm, so beating the consensus call is certainly a possibility. WhisperNumber.com - Apple