5 things to look for in Apple earnings announcement

In the midst of a gloomy outlook for the overall economy, Apple will announce its fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday. The announcement, which will cover Apple's performance for the three-month period ended Sept. 30 and close the books on the company's 2008 fiscal year, will not only offer a view of how Apple fared the last three months--it could also provide a glimpse of how the company is positioned to weather an increasingly turbulent economy.

Apple releases its earnings after the stock market closes Tuesday afternoon. A 2 p.m. PT conference call will follow in which Apple executives--typically chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer and chief operating officer Tim Cook--field questions from Wall Street analysts. Macworld.com will have live coverage of the quarterly analysts call along with reports on Apple's fourth-quarter performance on Tuesday afternoon.

But in advance of that earnings announcement, here are five things to look for when Apple opens its books on Tuesday.

1. Can Apple beat the Street?
Analysts are looking for Apple to report earnings of US$1.11 per share for the fourth quarter on $8.05 billion in revenue, according to online collections of analyst estimates. Those numbers would improve upon the 2007 fourth-quarter tallies of $1.01 earnings per share and $6.22 billion in revenue by 10 percent and 29 percent, respectively. It would also top Apple's own projections--in July, Oppenheimer said the company expected to earn $1 per share on sales of $7.8 billion for the fourth quarter.

But even beating analysts' fourth-quarter forecasts may not be enough to satisfy Wall Street. What investors will be paying attention to is what Apple will do next quarter. You may recall that the fourth-quarter guidance offered by Oppenheimer during July's conference call was well below analysts' expectations. Apple stock took a tumble, despite a strong third-quarter performance. What Apple executives say about the first quarter of the company's 2009 fiscal year during Tuesday's briefing will be the biggest factor in how the market responds to any earnings announcements.

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