Apple Computer Inc may be looking a little like a miracle worker these days, but some analysts have nevertheless been looking for too much from the Cupertino company. Apple says that while it is comfortable with earnings estimates of $2.50 to $2.75 a share for its fiscal year to September 1988, it has seen estimates as high as $3 a share and that is asking too much. Apple earned $1.65 a share in fiscal 1987. The shares have been a dull market early in the week on suggestions that Apple is seeking to damp down over-optimistic expectations, and also on fears that there were extremely large blocks of Apple stock overhanging the market. A trader at Montgomery Securities said that there had been rumours his firm would print a trade in Apple as large as 3m shares, but he denied that the firm currently had stock for sale, although he acknowledged that it traded about 3m Apple shares on Friday and Monday. A trader at Hambrecht & Quist said that he had heard rumours that there were 1m or more shares of Apple currently for sale, and he too says the rumours aren’t true. But a trader at a third firm said that there was an extra-large seller in the market looking to shed about 1m of the company’s shares. Last week, Apple reported better-than-expected first quarter earnings of $0.92 a share, up from $0.45 a year ago.
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