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3 Key Estimates for Apple's Q1 Earnings Report

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Shares of Apple (AAPL - Free Report) opened slightly higher on Wednesday as the market gears up for the tech behemoth’s fiscal first-quarter earnings announcement tomorrow afternoon. Apple’s report promises to be one the most important events on Wall Street this week, so investors will definitely want to keep an eye on the results.

Apple shares have dipped over the past week, primarily because of reports that the company’s special-edition iPhone X is not selling as well as expected. The stock also experienced some volatility on the back of a Justice Department investigation into Apple slowing down older phones.

But what does Apple have in store for investors in its Q1 report? Well, our current Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for adjusted earnings of $3.82 per share and revenues of $86.02 billion. These results would represent year-over-year growth of 13.7% and 9.8%, respectively.

Of course, earnings and revenue are just two of the many things investors will be looking at when Apple reports on Thursday. Investors will also be interested in how the company was able to perform in its key business segments.

To prepare for this, we can turn to our exclusive non-financial metrics consensus estimate file. The Zacks Consensus NFM file contains detailed estimate data for business segment metrics and non-financial metrics reported by companies. The data is acquired from digest and contributing broker models and includes the independent research of expert stock market analysts.

Our latest consensus estimates show that analysts expect Apple to report total iPhone unit sales of 79.791 million, which would represent a 1.9% gain from the 78.290 million witnessed in the year-ago quarter. In the previous quarter, Apple sold 46.677 million units, up about 2.6% year-over-year.

According to our latest consensus estimates, Apple is projected to post total iPhone revenues of $59.313 billion. This result would represent growth of about 9.1% from the $54.378 billion posted in the comparable period last year. In the prior quarter, Apple reported iPhone revenues of $28.846 billion, growing just 2.4% year-over-year. Apple’s expanding growth rate in this category could underscore the higher selling price for the iPhone X.

Finally, based on our most recent consensus estimates, we expect Apple to report Services revenues of $8.649 billion, which would represent growth of about 20.6% from the $7.172 billion posted in the year-ago quarter.

The Services segment includes things like iTunes, Apple Music, AppleCare, Apple Pay, and licensing. Last quarter, Apple posted revenues of $8.501 billion in this category, beating our consensus estimate of $7.613 billion and expanding 34.4% year-over-year. This was a record for quarterly Services revenue.

Make sure to check back here for our full analysis of Apple’s actual results tomorrow!

Want more analysis from this author? Make sure to follow @Ryan_McQueeney on Twitter!

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