All Eyes on Apple (AAPL) Into Q4 Earnings Print

All eyes are on Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) ahead of the iPhone giant's fourth quarter earnings results after the close tonight. Analysts on average are looking for the company to report EPS of $1.31 on revenues of $39.85 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 11% and 6.3%, respectively. The company has beaten the Street five quarters in a row by an average of 6.5% and the stock has seen an average move higher of 1.7% in the week following results results over the past four quarters. Last quarter the stock moved 2.6% in the trading session immediately following the release.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster previewed tonight's report and expect the company to report revenue near or slightly above guidance for $37-40 billion with iPhones in the 37-38 million range. More importantly, he expects the company to offer strong Dec-14 guidance with the high-end of the revenue range 7% above the Street.

Below is what Munster believes the Street is looking for this quarter (FQ4):

• Revenue - $40 billion or more vs guide of $37-40 billion
  • Note to revenue - we believe it is unlikely that Apple posts revenue significantly ahead of the $40 billion top end of guidance as we believe if numbers were meaningfully ahead of that, they would have revised guidance following the opening weekend iPhone sales figures.
• iPhones - 37-38 million (10% y/y growth vs 13% in Jun-14)
• iPads - 12 million (-15% y/y vs -9% in Jun-14)
• Macs - 4.6 million (1% y/y growth vs 18% in Jun-14)
• Gross Margins - 37.5% vs guide of 37-38%.

Looking further at December guidance (FQ1), Munster commented: "As we have previously detailed, we believe there could be meaningful upside to Dec-14 Street revenue estimates driven primarily by higher ASPs. First, in terms of iPhone units, we believe that high-end iPhone units could grow 25-45% y/y vs the iPhone 5S, which implies a December iPhone unit range of 56.7-62.7 million units. We believe this unit range compares to the Street at around 60 million and some investor expectations as high as 62-63 million (driven by strength in China). Second, we believe ASPs in Dec-14 could be ~$695 vs our current $630 based on the addition of the $100 more expensive iPhone 6 Plus and a shift to higher capacity and higher ASP SKUs. The midpoint of our iPhone unit range (59.7 million) and the ~ $695 ASP in December imply total revenue of $67.7 billion (7% above the Street). Thus we expect Apple to guide December revenue to $65-68 billion. For gross margins, we believe Apple is seeing a positive impact to higher SKU iPhones as well as a benefit from the higher-priced 6 Plus. We believe this implies Dec-14 gross margins in the 38-38.5% range vs the Street at 37.5-38%."

Apple normally reports at 4:30PM ET and has a scheduled conference call at 5PM ET.

Shares of Apple are up 1.6% to $99.21 into the print.

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