Apple: BMO Capital Trims FY Q1, ‘09 iPhone Forecasts

In the third cautious comment from the Street this week on the outlook for Apple (AAPL) iPhone sales, BMO Capital’s Keith Bachman today trimmed his unit forecast for both the December quarter and all of fiscal 2009. He also reduced his earnings estimates for both fiscal 2009 and 2010. Bachman says that given September channel fill - 2 million of the 6.9 million units sold in the quarter went into channel inventory - the December quarter faces “a tough sequential compare.” He thinks end-market unit sales for the quarter can move up 15% from the September sell-through of 4.9 million. Ergo, he cut his forecast to 5.6 million units from 6.6 million. For the September 2009 fiscal year, he now sees Apple selling 21.7 million iPhones, down from 22.8 million. But he is increasing his FY 2010 unitforecast to 26.2 million, from 24.5 million. For FY ‘09, he now sees GAAP profits of $5.11 a share, down from $5.20, and “economic earnings,” adding back deferred ... (link)