Citi Ups Apple's Estimates on Mac Sales

While Eric’s heading up to Moscone Center in SF for the world of Steve Jobs, I thought I’d pass along a note from Citigroup’s Richard Gardner, who this morning writes that he’s upping his estimate for Apple’s (AAPL) fourth quarter earnings per share from $1.60 to $1.75, mostly on stronger sales of Macintosh computers.

Apple may have sold 2.4 million units of desktops and laptops in the quarter, writes Gardner, better than his prior estimate of 2.2 million. He actually thinks Apple may beat some estimates on its sales of the iPhone because it does have a 3G wireless data capability, which may have dragged sales in Europe. The Street’s looking for 2.5 million units, but Gardner thinks that may be too much.

Those numbers are less aggressive than those of RBC Capital’s Mike Abramsky, who yesterday posited a 2.5 million-unit count. Like Abramsky, Gardner lowered his forecast for iPods, from 25 million to 24 million, which is slightly lower than Abramsky’s 24.4 million.

And one other thing: falling DRAM memory chip prices is boosting Apple’s gross profit: it could be 35% of sales in the fourth quarter, ahead of a Gardner’s prior 33% estimate. He has a Buy rating on the stock and a price target of $215.

Apple is down .37% at $178.12.

Comments

[Oh Blah DeeBlah Dah]

RE: " Citigroup’s Richard Gardner, who this morning writes that he’s upping his estimate for Apple’s (AAPL) fourth quarter earnings"

It's Apple's FIRST fiscal quarter (Oct, Nov, Dec 2007), not its fourth!

Apple's fourth quarter was Jul, Aug, Sep 2007.

[Long-ShortGuy]

4th calendar qtr, 1st fiscal. If you don't specify, it means calendar. So he's right.