Tuesday night, you should bake yourself a Braeburn cobbler, or just polish up a fresh Granny Smith. That's right, we're gearing up for an Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) report -- this time for the third quarter of fiscal 2007.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or waffle? According to Briefing.com, 13 out of 17 Wall Street analysts are buyers of Apple stock, while the other four are just holding. In our Motley Fool CAPS database, this is a three-star stock, based on ratings from more than 7,800 players. It's the most-rated stock in CAPS, ahead of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG).
  • Revenue. Official guidance points to roughly $5.1 billion. The analysts want more, and are looking for $5.28 billion on average. That's 21% above the year-ago figure.
  • Earnings. Apple itself says we should expect about $0.66 per share. Again, Wall Street disagrees, with a consensus forecast of $0.72 per share, up from $0.54 last year.

What management says:
Steve Jobs didn't show for the last earnings call, so the star power and entertainment value there was a bit less than usual. CFO Peter Oppenheimer filled in for him, and took the time to recount the company's greatest commercial successes. Mac shipments in the first half of 2007 grew 32% over 2006, and Apple shipped its hundred-millionth (yowza!) iPod.

What management does:
Apple is on a roll ever since the iPod became the digital music player of choice, with an interim vitamin shot from new Macs with Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Inside. Don't expect a huge contribution from the iPhone this quarter, no matter how popular the product may be -- the thing was on the market for a grand total of one business day in the third quarter. The AppleTV box gets its moment in the sun this time, though, after a similarly slender single week of contributions to the previous quarter.

The most beautiful thing in these tables is the cash flow development. Let me just point out that year over year, Apple multiplied its free cash flow eightfold in the December quarter. In this latest March quarter, it turned a negative year-ago FCF of $318 million into a positive $629 million in greenbacks.

Margins

12/2005

4/2006

7/2006

9/2006

12/2006

3/2007

Gross

28.5%

28.6%

28.9%

29.1%

30.3%

31.7%

Operating

12.8%

12.9%

13.2%

13.5%

15.4%

17%

Net

9.9%

10%

10.3%

10.3%

11.7%

12.9%

FCF/Revenue

10.9%

5.5%

7.2%

8.1%

14.7%

18.4%

Y-O-Y Growth

12/2005

4/2006

7/2006

9/2006

12/2006

3/2007

Revenue

65.8%

56%

44.1%

38.6%

27.7%

24.7%

Earnings

214.6%

133.3%

88.3%

49.8%

51.9%

61.9%
All data courtesy of Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. Data reflects trailing-12-month performance for the quarters ended in the named months.

One Fool says:
Like everyone else, I hope to see some official, early numbers on that iPhone thingamabob. If reports from Main Street are right, this looks like another bona fide hit, hideous price tag and all, and should become a steady contributor to Apple's top and bottom lines for a long time to come. It's also a higher-margin product than the company is used to, according to various teardown reports, and the R&D work that went into this first iteration has already been accounted for. That's good news for future margins.

But again, that won't help any this time around. Apple is in the habit of blowing out expectations, stretching back at least as far as 2004 (depending on your definition of a blowout). I haven't seen any news out of Cupertino the last three months that would make me expect anything less this time, either.

Intel and Microsoft are two of the stocks on our Motley Fool Inside Value scorecard. Join our market-beating search for Wall Street's best bargains with a free 30-day trial subscription.

Fool contributor Anders Bylund is a Google shareholder, but holds no other position in any of the companies discussed here. You can check out Anders' holdings if you like, and Foolish disclosure will help you find the road ahead.