I’ve started this thread as a place for forum members and guests to express their views and share information as we head toward the release of Apple’s 2nd fiscal quarter results (period ending 3/31/02).

There has been much talk in the financial press about Apple’s decision to increase prices on its popular iMac line by $100.00. Analysts and market watchers are not concerned about the impact of the price increase on sales, but the manner in which the need to raise prices due to increases in component costs might impact results in Apple’s 2nd fiscal quarter.

The link below features a story detailing analyst concerns about Apple’s margins on the iMac in light of rising component prices and the possible impact on net income.

The Globe and Mail Report 3/26/02

Robert

edited to fix link
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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: DawnTreader on 2002-03-26 20:50 ]</font>

It is at, least, possible that initial iMac sales had lower prices for components and that Apple will be on target.

I agree

You may recall late last year before the intro of the flat panel Imac a press story about Apple ordiering 1 million flat panels from the far east (hynux?)  It seems to me that at the time of the order they would have fixed the price. This is standard practice. Presumably they would have fixed the price of memory in the forward market as well..
    Whether or not they did we will never know ( it would be bad p.r. to have added a hundred bucks when the costs were already covered) however I suspect that Apple will meet the 11 cents per share in two weeks time. What should move the stock ahead is not the earnings but Fred Andersons telephone guidance following the earnings release. The big news, imho, is their survey of pc switchers
just my 2 cents

On 2002-04-01 20:09, Anonymous wrote:
You may recall late last year before the intro of the flat panel Imac a press story about Apple ordiering 1 million flat panels from the far east (hynux?)  It seems to me that at the time of the order they would have fixed the price. This is standard practice. Presumably they would have fixed the price of memory in the forward market as well..
    Whether or not they did we will never know ( it would be bad p.r. to have added a hundred bucks when the costs were already covered) however I suspect that Apple will meet the 11 cents per share in two weeks time. What should move the stock ahead is not the earnings but Fred Andersons telephone guidance following the earnings release. The big news, imho, is their survey of pc switchers
just my 2 cents

In the fourth fiscal quarter of 2000 Apple took a huge hit to earnings for obligatory payments to suppliers for missing minimum orders. Since then i believe the company has been more conservative in its projections.

Demand for the new iMac propably exceeded original projections and Apple was forced to compete in the market for remianing supply. Apple’s decision to increase prices most likely gave them an edge in securing components.  Better to pay more and have predictable supply than unable to predict delivery of key components needed to deliver product.

Asking a supplier to ramp up production can be expensive. I expect prices to level off a bit as more supply becomes available and manufacturing facilites are retooled for the products.

USB Warburg has raised its outlook on Apple to a strong buy from hold ahead of the Mac maker’s earnings announcement scheduled for next week.

USB Warburg Raises Outlook On Appple .

The wall street journal has a story appearing Friday that says Quanta computer shipped 150,000 imacs in MARCH ALONE!!!

The consensus estimate for AAPL’s quarterly earnings and revenue stands at $.10 per share in earnings and revenue of about $1.5 billion.

On 2002-04-13 02:18, DawnTreader wrote:
The consensus estimate for AAPL’s quarterly earnings and revenue stands at $.10 per share in earnings and revenue of about $1.5 billion.

It will be interesting to see how AAPL performs on & following earnings.  Given the market’s customary hyper-reactivity to Apple, I expect another round of “buying opportunities” should AAPL come in below estimates.

Still, I harbor hope that the tide of public opinion may be turning.  The UBS call echos my own opinion, but nice to see them recognising the pent-up potential in AAPL.

Like I say, interesting.