S&P Capital IQ Analyst: 'We Actually Think Apple Will Likely Beat Expectations'

With beating estimates becoming a habit for Apple Inc. AAPL, a lot of analysts feel that this quarter will be no different. Among them is Angelo Zino, equity analyst at S&P Capital IQ. Zino was on CNBC Monday to discuss why Apple will be beating expectations again this time.

Blowing The Number

“We actually think they will meet expectations,” Zino said. “In fact, we actually think they will likely beat expectations. So, our expectations is $2.18 in earnings on revenue of about $56.7 billion so slightly above the Street. Right now the Street is looking at about 56 and 57 million in iPhone sales and really that’s going to be the key to the quarter.”

He continued, “We think that Apple is really going to need a kind of blow the number out given their recent success in prior quarters and I think investors for the most part are going to be looking at seeing if they can top this 60 million level still a drop from the 75 and 74.5 million we saw in the prior quarter when they hit record sales, but nonetheless it’s a much better, it’s year over year growth north of 35 percent. So, overall we expect a very good quarter from them led by iPhone sales.”

Currency Headwind

How much will a negative impact will a stronger dollar have on Apple. He replied, “It negatively impacted them last quarter and as you could see they were still able to blow out the numbers. I mean you look at the results here coming up this quarter and the company gave their guidance in late January when we already saw a massive hit in the Euro relative to the Dollar as well as other currencies. So, we actually think a lot of that is already discounted in the original guidance they gave for 52 to 55 million in iphone sales as well as the revenue numbers.