Sterne Agee’s Shaw Wu has revised his estimates for Apple’s Q1 FY2012 results upwards again based on supply chain numbers. The Senior Technology Analyst estimates that Apple sold 29.5 million iPhones during the holiday quarter and has raised his target price for AAPL to US$540.00.
Mr. Wu also believes that Apple will report Mac sales of over 5 million, a first for Apple, and 13.5 million iPads. The revenue is estimated to be US$38.7B and earnings per share (EPS) of $10.34.
These are middle of the road estimates. Some analysts have predicted revenue as high as $41.8B and 33 million iPhones. The low range is at $35.3B and 25 million iPhones.
Mr. Wu told investors, “For its outlook, AAPL usually offers vintage conservative guidance, but based on the iPhone 4S launching in China on January 12 and our supply chain checks indicating a compelling iPad 3 launch, we believe it could be less conservative than usual. For the March quarter, we are modeling $31.4 billion in revenue and $8.06 in EPS vs. consensus at $32 billion and $8.00 in EPS.”
The Mac Observer will be covering Apple’s Earnings Report which starts today at 5:00 p.m. EST.
AAPL is currently selling at $422.33, down $5.08 for the day, amidst a general decline for some major tech stocks like MSFT and GOOG.