Morgan Stanley

Wall Street still doesn't understand Apple

With Q4 earnings due next week, the pros and the bloggers are $3.9 billion apart

It has become, for the Street, an embarrassing quarterly tradition.

The Apple (AAPL) independent analysts -- a growing community of bloggers, private investors and assorted amateurs -- file estimates that look, by Wall Street's standards, outrageously optimistic.

But as the day of reckoning approaches -- in this case, Tuesday Oct. 18, when Apple is scheduled to announce its MORE

iPhone 4S: Analysts weigh in

Disappointed there was no iPhone 5, but wowed by Siri and the speed of the rollout

Below: A roundup of what the sell-side analysts told their clients after Apple's (AAPL) iPhone 4S announcement Tuesday. The tone of their notes was generally positive, which may help explain why the stock, which had fallen more than $20 during the course of the event, managed to close at $372.50, down only $2.10 (0.56%) for MORE

Apple's cash is already burning a hole in Wall Street's pockets

The $76 billion Apple reported last quarter could grow to $136 billion by the end of 2012

Apple's (AAPL) fourth fiscal quarter doesn't end until next week, but Morgan Stanley Katy Huberty already has her eye on the company's massive holdings in cash and marketable securities -- $76 billion at the end of Q3, which she estimates will swell to $94 billion by December and $136 billion by the end of MORE

5 ways Google's Motorola deal could spoil

The search giant's $12.5 billion acquisition bid is a bold move that could reshape the mobile business. It's also fraught with potential pitfalls.

By Alex Konrad, contributor

FORTUNE -- Sometimes, plan B is pretty good. When Google missed out on buying Nortel Networks' patent hoard earlier this summer, few could have predicted it would make a stunning $12.5 billion cash bid for Motorola Mobility.

The move is sure to change Google's (GOOG) business, MORE

Steve Jobs is still grounded

For the second quarter in a row, reimbursements for his corporate jet were $0.00

We've been keeping an eye on Steve Jobs' private jet expenses ever since Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty recommended that her clients buy Apple (AAPL) based on how much time he was spending in the air.

The argument she made in Feb. 2008, after Jobs was reimbursed a record $550,000 for jet fuel and other expenses, was that he MORE

Apple's 'jaw-dropping' third quarter: The analysts weigh in

A sampling of reactions to Apple's (AAPL) profits growing 125% year over year

IDC's Al Hilwa:  "Apple's growth in the third quarter was simply jaw-dropping. In 20 years of following tech I have seen very few companies in the $90 to $100 billion run-rate and none that have produced 80% organic quarterly growth. The success of the iPad truly crystallizes the point that we are living in an era of rapid MORE

Another Apple blowout quarter. Once again, the Street blew it

But an amateur -- a Romanian mathematician teaching in Paris -- nailed the numbers

This story never gets old.

An army of Wall Street analysts, backed by the computing power of some of the world's richest banks and brokerage houses, have once again been out-foxed and out-analyzed by rag-tag bunch of bloggers, amateurs and independent investors.

A glance at the chart at right, which lists the 48 analysts we polled in advance of MORE

How many iPhones did Apple sell last quarter?

The analysts' estimates range from 15 million to 20.25 million. Average: 16.9 million.

No product contributes more to Apple's (AAPL) bottom line than the iPhone.

In the 2nd fiscal quarter that ended in March, when the company sold a record 18.65 million units, the iPhone and related products and services generated $12.3 billion in revenue, almost exactly 50% of Apple's total sales for the quarter -- more than the Mac, iPod and MORE

iPad sales estimates for fiscal Q3 range from 6.0 to 9.5 million

Mean analyst estimate: 7.9 million. The amateurs, as usual, are more bullish than the pros

Apple (AAPL) is scheduled to report its fiscal third quarter earnings on July 19, a week from today, and in preparation for our quarterly earnings smackdown we've been gathering estimates from the small army of analysts -- profession and amateur -- who follow the company.

The biggest mystery this quarter -- and the biggest discrepancy in unit MORE

Report: Apple is building two (!) iPhones for September release

An analyst expects Apple to launch both an iPhone 5 and a mid-range iPhone 4S

For much of the spring, the reporters who cover Apple (AAPL) have been arguing among themselves about what to call the new iPhone they expect the company to introduce in September.

Some call it the iPhone 5, to match the iOS 5 operating system Apple unveiled to developers three weeks ago.

Some, anticipating that the new device will MORE