Quarterly earnings

How many iPads (new and old) did Apple sell last quarter?

The estimates range from 9 to 15.6 million. The best analysts' consensus: 11 million

FORTUNE -- Anybody who tells you they know how many iPads Apple (AAPL) sold in the quarter that ended March 31 is either lying or privy to inside information.

This increasingly important data point -- the iPad accounted for 20% of Apple's revenue in Q1, second only to the iPhone (53%) -- is devilishly hard to predict, especially MORE

Cocking the Apple slingshot

Why would a stock like Apple fall 10% just before quarterly earnings are due? 

MONDAY 4:00 p.m. UPDATE: Throw another -4.15% on the barbie. One analyst called today's selloff "panic profit taking."

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I think it may be time once again to dust off Jason Schwarz' classic blog post: Apple: Seven Reasons Shorts Love It.

Apple's (AAPL) shares, in case you missed it, took a drubbing last week, falling $38.77 (6%) in MORE

How many iPhones did Apple sell last quarter?

The estimates range from 26 to 44 million. The best analysts' consensus: 35 million.

The most important metric for Apple (AAPL) in the quarter that ended two weeks ago -- likely to account for more than half of the company's revenue for fiscal Q2 2012 -- is the number of iPhones it sold from Jan. 1  to Mar. 31.

We've polled 48 analysts -- evenly divided between professional and independent -- and the indies, MORE

Apple analyst raises estimated EPS 39%, downgrades stock

Predicts the carriers will "stunt the pace of phone upgrades" in 2012, starting this quarter

BTIG's Walter Piecyk sent his clients some deeply mixed signals Monday, two weeks before Apple (AAPL) is scheduled to report its second fiscal quarter earnings.

On the one hand, he's taken a new look at estimates he published in January and revised them sharply upward -- nearly 39% in EPS alone  (see table at right).

On the other, MORE

Apple to release second quarter earnings on April 24

Fasten your seatbelts. It's likely to be a bumpy ride, no matter what Apple reports.

What: Apple's (AAPL) fiscal Q2 2012 conference call with analysts
When: April 24 at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific
Where: Click here for live streaming audio

Apple is up one Amazon since Tim Cook's toga party speech

Since February 14, the stock has hit 27 new highs in 31 trading days

"We're not going to go have a toga party or do something outlandish, and so people don't have to worry [the cash] is going to burn a hole in our pocket." -- Tim Cook

Conventional wisdom had it that Apple's (AAPL) share price would take off  once the company declared a dividend.

Turns out, all it took was a MORE

Asymco: Can the iPad sustain 150% yearly growth?

There is a precedent: iPhone sales have doubled, on average, every year since 2007

The chief difference between the independent analysts who follow Apple (AAPL) and their counterparts on Wall Street is that the independents put a premium on being right.

The professionals, with all due respect, seem to care more about not over-promising or straying too far from the consensus. (See here, here and here, for example.)

So investors who want informed MORE

Who first called Apple at $500?

Technically, it was Hudson Square's Daniel Ernst. But we have a few caveats.

Eyebrows were raised in October 2010 when Daniel Ernst hiked his 12-month Apple (AAPL) price target from $300 a share to $500. But perhaps drawing attention to himself was the point. The senior analyst at Hudson Square Research is now a regular contributor on CNBC and his current price target -- $700 -- is once again the Street's MORE

Wall Street raises its Apple estimates, but not high enough

Apple's earnings grew 116% in Q1. So why is the Street is looking for 44% in Q2?

After Apple (AAPL) blew past everybody's expectations on Tuesday, reporting sales up more than 73% and earnings up nearly 116%, analysts up and down Wall Street rushed to revise their spreadsheets and issue new notes to clients. We got our hands on 39 of them -- plus a note from one analyst that his MORE

The analysts weigh in on Apple's $46 billion quarter

Nothing but praise -- after the ship had sailed -- from folks who totally missed the boat 

A sampling of what Wall Street had to say overnight about Apple's (AAPL) first fiscal quarter earnings report:

Barclay's Ben Reitzes: No "Law of Large Numbers" Here. The upside Apple posted for the December quarter was beyond all of our most bullish scenarios, especially for iPhones and iPads. Most importantly, it seems momentum can continue given low MORE