Apple investors are holding their breath ahead of earnings (AAPL)

pulse

February 1, 2018 7:32 PM

Investors will be watching for the company's guidance around sales of the iPhone X.

Apple shares are flat ahead of earnings.
Investors will be watching for the company's guidance around sales of the iPhone X.

Apple is set to report earnings from its holiday quarter after the bell on Thursday, and investors are sure to be watching the results closely.

Shares of Apple are little changed at $167.46 in the hours before the report is set to cross the wires. Wall Street is expecting adjusted earnings of $3.84 per share on revenue of $87.302 billion, according to Bloomberg data.

GAAP earnings have been a bit of a hiccup for other tech companies that have reported earnings lately, as the new tax law has forced many companies to absorb one-off costs. Facebook reported a beat across every earnings measure except for GAAP earnings on Wednesday and saw its stock drop about 5% before recovering.

BMO Capital Markets made a splash on Wednesday when the firm issued a rare downgrade of the stock. BMO said it was concerned that the high price of the new iPhone X, which will be included in the earnings report for the first time, is driving down demand and stretching the pricing limits of the smartphone.

Shares of Apple have lagged so far this year, and are down 2.68%, compared to a gain of 7.57% by the S&P 500 Information Technology index.

Millennials don't seem to share the same reservations as Wall Street. Young investors on the trading apps Robinhood and Stockpile are loading up on shares ahead of the report.

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