I'll make it multiple choice for you, Apple's earnings will most closely reflect this competitor:
A) April 6: Samsung Electronics Co. says it is expecting a record operating profit of $5.1 billion for the first quarter. It says the result would be a 97 percent rise from its operating profit a year earlier. Samsung estimated that its first quarter sales rose 21.6 percent from a year earlier. More details will come when Samsung releases its full quarterly results.
B) April 12: Google Inc. reports adjusted earnings and adjusted revenue that beat expectations. Google’s revenue was helped by a 39 percent increase in “paid clicks,” but the prices of its search-driven text ads continued to decline. CEO Larry Page called the first quarter “very strong,” but acknowledged there’s more work to do.
C) March 29: Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) reported revenue and profit that fell short of analysts’ estimates and said it will discontinue giving financial forecasts as demand for BlackBerry smartphones wanes.
Fourth-quarter earnings excluding one-time items fell to 80 cents a share and sales dropped 25 percent to $4.19 billion, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company said today in a statement. Analysts predicted earnings of 81 cents and sales of $4.51 billion, the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. RIM also said Jim Balsillie, its former co-chief executive officer, has resigned from the board.
D) (old) January 31: Amazon's fourth-quarter sales results weren't awful, but investors went ahead and punished the stock severely anyway.
Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) earned $177 million, or 38 cents per share for the holiday quarter that ended December 31 -- more than double the 17 cents per share that analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast.
But Amazon's revenue came in at $17.4 billion, missing the $18.3 billion that analysts expected.
In other words:
A) spectacular
B) good but with fundamental concerns
C) horrible
D) make earnings but miss revenue
Or your own prediction would suffice....
OTB