Apple (AAPL) Earnings Preview Q3 2013: Wall Street Remains Pessimistic Ahead Of Tuesday's Report

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is expected to announce earnings for its fiscal third quarter during a conference call starting today at 5 p.m. EDT. While Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer provided a bullish guidance for Q3 2013 at the company's last earnings call, Wall Street analysts remain generally pessimistic about Apple's Q3 earnings.

On April 23, Oppenheimer told analysts to expect revenue to come in between $33.5 billion and $35.5 billion for Apple's fiscal 2013 third quarter; on average, Wall Street predictions fall between Apple's low and high guidance range, with the general consensus that year-on-year revenues will be either flat or slightly down. In Q2 2012, Apple posted quarterly revenue of $35.0 billion on $9.32 per diluted share.

Analysts across the board also expect Apple's Q3 2013 earnings per share to be down anywhere from 7 percent to 29 percent. On average, Wall Street analysts predict $34.90 in revenue and $7.29 earnings per diluted share. Check out the full set of estimates from Wall Street analysts, courtesy of Fortune. Apple's high and low guidance is marked in red, institutional analysts are listed in blue and independents are listed in green.

Of course, the market is looking at sales of Apple's key devices, especially the iPhone, iPad and Mac lines. Though Apple's CFO provided no guidance on these figures in the last quarter, Wall Street is predicting sales of 26.6 million iPhones, 17.6 million iPads and 3.9 million Macs in Q3 2013. AAPL stock on Wednesday may respond favorably if the company can reach those benchmarks.

In the last quarter alone, Apple announced many new hardware and software products, including Mac OS X Mavericks and iOS 7, but it only released one piece of hardware during that time frame. Unfortunately for Apple, the new 2013 MacBook Air received only lukewarm reviews, even with its much-improved battery life. The company will need more products to drum up excitement -- and more important, sales -- if it hopes to avoid another disappointing earnings call.

To listen to Apple's Q3 3013 conference call, visit this link starting at 5 p.m. EDT.

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