Apple to Post New Record Quarter Today

Figures dished out by market research firm NPD and analyzed by Piper Jaffray analysts suggest Apple is on track to post new record sales of iPhones, iPads, and Macs today.

Apple announced last month that the company would disclose its earnings for fiscal quarter 4 of 2011 today, October 18.

As usual, Cupertino will provide live audio streaming of its FY 11 Fourth Quarter Results Conference Call using QuickTime.

The live webcast will begin at 2:00 p.m. PDT at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq411 and will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster issued a note to clients this week saying it would be wise to own AAPL stock right about now.

After analyzing NPD sales data released Monday, Munster said his firm predicts sales of 22 million iPhones, 10 million iPads and 4.5 million Macs during Apple’s fourth quarter.

"We recommend owning shares of AAPL into the September quarter results based on strong Mac sales and margin leverage on iPhone and iPad volume," analyst Gene Munster wrote.

"More important than the September quarter, we believe the set up for the next 6 months is favorable based on likely investor optimism around the holiday quarter, the impact of iPhone 4S, and talk in early 2012 of iPhone 5 and iPad 3," Munster told clients Monday.

Other Wall Street analysts’ expectations are pretty much in line with Munster’s. According to AppleInsider, they expect Cupertino to post $29.45 billion in revenue today.

Wall Street expects sales of 19.7 million iPhones, 11.4 million iPads, 4.4 million Macs and 7.4 million iPods, according to the report.

Apple has reported higher-than-expected demand for the new iPhone 4S which sold over 4 million units in its first weekend, breaking earlier records set by the iPhone 4 and the iPhones before it.