As regards Cisco Systems’s (CSCO) press release this morning outlining a plan to re-focus its operations, some Street views have started to trickle in.

Brian White with Ticonderoga Securities writes this morning that the “120 day plan,” as he refers to it, is a “step in the right direction.

“Essentially, we believe today’s changes will make it easier for customers to work with Cisco, increase the company’s focus on its core businesses, raise accountability within the organization and reduce bureaucracy,” writes White.

Blair emphasizes the company slimming down from 9 “cross-functional councils” to just three. The complex council structure, put in place in 2001, slowed decision making and obscured accountability, he writes.

As a further step, he suggests, too, that Cisco drop its long-term sales growth target of 12% to 17% and operating margin goal of 28% to 31%. “Investors view these goals as an overhang on the stock price, and the sooner these targets are dropped, the better.”

White reiterates a Buy rating on Cisco shares and a $28 price target.

Brian Marshall with Gleacher & Co. is less enthusiastic, writing, “While we applaud CSCO’s recent moves, we believe it will take a non-trivial amount of time to move this tanker ship.”

He maintains a Neutral rating on Cisco shares, and writes that he’s inclined to look more favorably upon shares of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), which may stand a better chance of capturing “value exposure in technology,” with operating margins expanding, rather than contracting, as are Cisco’s.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

$$$ Lawmakers told $2 trillion debt cap raise needed: sources (Reuters)

$$$ Obama will not release bin Laden photos, White House says (WaPo)

$$$ Value Investing Congress Summary: Marks, Romick, Tilson, Leonard & More (MarketFolly)

$$$ UBS Financial Services Inc. lost a jury verdict of almost $10.6 million in a case brought by a former sales assistant who said she was sexually harassed by a supervisor…[who] “repeatedly made inappropriate comments about Ingraham’s breast size,” called her into his office “to view sexually offensive e-mails on his computer,” and repeatedly talked about the size of his genitals,” she said. He also asked her about her sexual fantasies, she said in the lawsuit. (Bloomberg)

$$$ More Power Over Wall Street, but Little Chance to Discuss It (ProPublica)

$$$ Dems To Force Vote On Oil Subsidies (HuffPo)

$$$ Madoff trustee Irving Picard wants to start repaying victims (NYP)

$$$ PIMCO rolls out floating-rate fund ahead of rates (Reuters)

$$$ Carlos Slim Actively Selling Silver Futures (CNBC)

$$$ Bank Stocks Shunned by Money Managers Over Derivatives (Bloomberg)

$$$ LinkedIn Chooses NYSE Over Nasdaq, Following Renren and Pandora (Bloomberg)

$$$ NASA Gravity Probe Confirms Two Einstein Theories (Space)

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

via guestofaguest.com: Celebs and VIPs descended on our nation’s capital this weekend for the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, followed by a slew of glam post-dinner celebrations. Go inside and see who made it on the guest list to the hottest ticket of the night at the Vanity Fair After Party. MORE>>

Article courtesy of %source%

Buffett Seeks To Limit Damage (WSJ)
In contrast to his March 30 remarks, when he said he thought Mr. Sokol’s actions weren’t “in any way unlawful,” Mr. Buffett on Saturday called Mr. Sokol’s actions “inexcusable” and said they violated the company’s insider-trading rules and code of ethics. He said Berkshire had turned over “some very damning evidence, in my view” about Mr. Sokol’s trades to the SEC. Mr. Sokol maintains he did nothing wrong, and his attorney late Saturday released a statement calling Mr. Buffett’s stance a “resort to transparent scapegoatism.”

Buffett Extols Berkshire’s CEO Candidates, Faults Sokol’s Trades (Bloomberg)
“There is no real chance the next CEO comes from outside of Berkshire,” the 80-year-old billionaire said yesterday at a press conference in Omaha, Nebraska, site of the company’s annual meeting. “If you picked the worst of the candidates we have, that person would be very, very good.”…Sokol’s stock deals, which Buffett called “inexplicable” considering his wealth, depleted Berkshire’s list of possible CEOs. Berkshire said in February that it had four candidates, without identifying them. “The leading candidate right now, I would lay a lot of money on him being straight as an arrow,” Buffett said at the April 30 meeting.

Buffett: Failure To Raise Debt Ceiling Is Asinine (Reuters)
Warren Buffett said he expects the Congress to raise the nation’s debt ceiling before it expires in mid-May, and said it would be that body’s “most asinine act” ever if it failed.

The Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting (Deal Journal)
A question about what Berkshire is doing to protect against the fall of the dollar. Buffett in the past has bet against the U.S. dollar, but said he’s lately been inactive in foreign exchange markets. “There’s no question the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar will decline over time. The only question is at what rate, Buffett said. But other currencies will decline too, and he said he doesn’t have strong feelings about which ones will decline faster or slower. Buffett ends by saying he’d rather be in the U.S. right now than any other place or any other time in history.

Osama Bin Laden Killed in Pakistan, Obama Says (Bloomberg)
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan yesterday in a firefight with a team of U.S. operatives who raided the compound where he had been hiding, President Barack Obama said. “On nights like this one we can say to those families who have lost loved ones to al-Qaeda’s terror: Justice has been done,” Obama said in a late-night televised address from the White House.

Bin Laden Was Found At Luxurious Pakistan Compound (Reuters)
Few windows of the three-story home faced the outside of the compound, and a terrace had a seven-foot (2.1 meter) privacy wall, officials said. “It is also noteworthy that the property is valued at approximately $1 million but has no telephone or Internet service connected to it,” an administration official said. “The brothers had no explainable source of wealth.”

Buffett, Charlie Munger’s Share Thoughts On Trump (Reuters)
The biggest laughs of the day came from a question on Trump’s prospects for the White House. “Obviously, I think he’s a jerk,” Berkshire’s Vice Chairman Charlie Munger said, with Buffett adding in a more diplomatic way that he did not expect Trump to win the presidency.

Trump Says He’s Decided ‘In My Mind’ To Pursue Presidency (Bloomberg)
“In my mind, I have already decided,” Trump, 64, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “I am going to announce. But I can’t do anything until the show ends.”

Abu Dhabi, Hedge Funds to Back Glencore IPO (Reuters)
The listing, which could be London’s biggest ever, will be aided by strong support from cornerstones, who could buy nearly 30 percent of the shares sold — or some $3.6 billion worth, if the listing raises its maximum target of $12.1 billion.

Facebook Numbers Feed IPO Outlet (WSJ)
Lou Kerner…pegged Facebook’s profit margin—in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization—at about 50%. He said Ebitda should be $1.95 billion this year, and he estimated the company’s value in the public market would be $112.9 billion.

Greece Suggests EU/IMF Repayment Extension (Reuters)
In an interview with French daily Liberation published a day ahead of an inspection visit by the lenders, Papaconstantinou became the first Greek official to float the idea of a further easing of conditions on the 110 billion rescue.

Seth Meyers’ White House Correspondent’s Dinner Speech (TRB)

After Roasting, Trump Responds In Character (NYT)
“Seth Meyers has no talent,” Mr. Trump said in an interview on Sunday. “He fell totally flat. In fact, I thought Seth’s delivery was so bad that he hurt himself.”

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

With the summer months rapidly approaching and this shorts-appropriate weather already here, it’s time to get serious about how and where you’re going to exercise your undying right to day drink. Ah, yes, the easy breezy summer months when everybody has a fresh new attitude in preparation for reintroducing themselves to the sunlight and extra-long days.

To make this most of your summer, we’re here to provide you with 10 reasons you either need to quickly befriend somebody with a BBQ-friendly house or start considering taking matters into your own hands by offering up your digs to lead the very necessary BBQ fiesta train. So without further ado, we give you 10 Reasons To Have A Summer BBQ: Read the full story

Barclays, Credit Suisse Post Lower Profits (BW)
Net income at Credit Suisse fell to 1.14 billion Swiss francs ($1.31 billion) from 2.06 billion francs in the year-earlier period, the Zurich-based bank today. That compares with the 1.32 billion-franc average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg…Barclays said today its first-quarter profit fell 5.2 percent to 1.01 billion pounds ($1.67 billion) as earnings at its Barclays Capital investment banking unit dropped 33 percent. Sales and trading revenue fell 17 percent from the year-earlier period.

Bernanke’s Code: A Guide To The Fed Chairman’s First Q&A (WSJ)
Balance sheet: Look for Mr. Bernanke to affirm that QE2 will end in the summer, as planned. Any deviation from that position would be major news. Listen for what Mr. Bernanke says about the future size of the balance sheet. In this new world of Fed policy, how many securities the central bank holds is the primary signal of how much support it is providing the economy; the Fed has injected more than $2 trillion into the economy since the financial crisis. It is considered unlikely, but if Mr. Bernanke hints the Fed may stop reinvesting the proceeds from its mortgage holdings, it will be seen as the first step toward actual monetary tightening. If Mr. Bernanke drops such a hint, expect the dollar to rally.

Fed’s ‘Extended Period’ May End In May 2011, Economists Say (Bloomberg)
Thirty-three of 44 economists surveyed said the central bank will remove the two-word phrase from its post-meeting statement in 2011, with 18 betting it will move by September. The Fed may wait until 2012 to announce sales of mortgage or Treasury securities it bought to reduce borrowing costs, with 26 respondents expecting a plan next year, according to the survey, conducted from April 20 to April 25.

Hedge Fund Pot Farmer Pleads Guilty (TB)
Tara A. Bryson, executive of Ridgefield-based New Stream Capital has plead guilty to drug possession charges. She was sentenced to one year in jail, which was suspended, and a year of probation. Bryson copped a last minute plea deal with the State of Connecticut. In return she had felony charges of conspiracy to cultivate a pot farm reduced to a misdemeanor–possession of a controlled substance under four ounces and possession of drug paraphernalia. Bryson’s arrest report shows Connecticut State police found over 203 marijuana plants in her million dollar Newtown home so the charges being subbed out from cultivation of marijuana to only possession less than four ounces appears to be a lucky break.

Banks Warn Obama On Soaring Debt (FT)
“Any delay in making an interest or principal payment by Treasury even for a very short period of time would put the US Treasury and overall financial markets in uncharted territory and could trigger another catastrophic financial crisis,” said Matthew Zames, a JPMorgan executive, in a letter to Tim Geithner, the Treasury secretary, this week.

Robot Stock Picker Beats Human Managers After Japan Quake (Bloomberg)
Six computer programs, making all the investment decisions for T&D Asset Management’s Kabu-Robo Fund, generated returns of 1.9 percent in March. The average actively traded fund that invests in Japan lost 6.9 percent during the month, according to Tokyo-based Rating and Investment Information Inc. The benchmark Nikkei 225 (NKY) Stock Average dropped 8.2 percent in the period. “People tend to go with the herd when there’s a panic,” said Kazuhiro Kunisada, chief executive officer of Trade Science Corp., which designed the programs for T&D’s Kabu-Robo Fund. “Robots just follow the rules.”

NYPD Admits It Provided Diddy With A Police Escort (NYP)
The NYPD admitted today that it provided Sean “Diddy” Combs with a police escort following a concert last week, a decision slammed by Mayor Bloomberg. “The bottom line is the police department should treat everybody exactly the same. If you don’t get a police escort, P. Diddy shouldn’t,” Bloomberg said.

Does Corporate America Kowtow To China? (Reuters)
“I don’t blame the Chinese, they’re just pursuing their national interest,” said Patrick Mulloy, a member of the Congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. “I blame us for not realizing what’s happening to us and for doing nothing about it.”

White House Distributes Copies Of Obama’s Birth Certificate (BW)
Today’s release was made because “the president believes it was becoming a distraction,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said.

S&P’s Japan Outlook Goes Negative (WSJ)
In a statement Wednesday, the credit-rating firm said it estimated reconstruction costs owing to the quake and subsequent tsunami and nuclear disaster at ¥20 trillion to ¥50 trillion ($245 billion to $613 billion), with a central forecast of ¥30 trillion.

PIMCO Says Greece Needs To Restructure Its Debt (Reuters)
“So far none of the solutions for the Greek debt crisis have worked. And a lot of people – including me – don’t believe that they will work in the future,” Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive of PIMCO, wrote. Greece will need “a preferably voluntary and orderly restructuring” to relieve itself of its debt burden, the PIMCO CEO said.

I handed over £6.2m to gigolo out of love for him: Heiress tells how conman turned blackmailer (Daily Mail)
Married mother of three Ms Klatten, who is said to be worth more than £6 billion through holdings in car giants BMW and chemical firm Altana, fell for conman Helg Sgarbi, 46, after meeting him in a luxury hotel. The Swiss born former investment banker had told her he was a ‘special adviser for the Swiss government’ and fed her a string of lies, winning her over and within weeks they had become lovers. He wooed her with his charm but it later emerged that it was all part of an elaborate plot hatched by mystical faith healer Ernani Barretta, 63, whose trial began in Pescara today.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Consumers may be closing in on the elusive “white” iPhone 4.

According to the aptly named Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White,  AppleInsider is reporting the white iPhones will begin to arrive at Apple‘s (AAPL) retail stores over the next week, with an April 27th announcement, which he predicts could lift sales in the current quarter.

The white iPhone 4 was supposed to debut last year, but was delayed by several quarters due to technical problems. White noted that Apple has sold nearly 110 million iPhones since launching the first version, but all have been “black” in color.

When Steve Jobs appeared on stage with a white iPhone 4 last June to announce the product, Apple enthusiasts hoped that their white whale would soon be within their grasp. However, pre-orders gave consumers the same color choices as Henry Ford’s early models. Apple apologized for offering only black, saying that the white iPhone would face delays, as it was “more challenging to manufacture than expected.”

Therefore, the long-awaited arrival of the white iPhone could provide a tailwind for iPhone units during the second quarter, White predicts, given that the devices have “a certain mystique” and scarcity value.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

Go HERE for more photos from “Get Pleasured” by Casino Nelson and Doug Neill!

Personal values come into play when deciding which Coachella festivities to attend and you have to ask yourself tough questions like what kind of free stuff do I require? But when a particular party promises “three days & three nights of getting what you want”, the decision process is a whole lot easier and your FOMO greatly reduced. Such was the case for Flaunt’s “Get Pleasured” weekend event that was all about having fun, however party-goers defined it. Read the full story

Shares of Apple (AAPL) are up $8.59, or 2.5%, at $351 this morning following better-than-expected fiscal Q2 results last night, as price targets zoom and estimates rise almost across the board.

The highest price target I see this morning comes from Brian White of Ticonderoga, who previously had the highest as well. His new target is $612, up from $550.

White raised his Q3 estimate for revenue to $25.1 billion from $24.4 billion, and raised his EPS estimate to $5.63 from $5.43. For fiscal 2011, his revenue estimate goes to $106 billion from $102 billion, and his EPS estimate goes to $25.22 from $23.36.

“With the stock now trading at 10x our CY11 EPS estimate (ex-cash),” writes White, “we believe there is plenty of upside left in the stock price as we look forward to continued momentum from the iPad 2, a new iPhone 5 in September, growing adoption of Mac products and a bigger push in the TV market as the year progresses.”

• Abhey Lamba, ISI Group: Reiterates a Buy rating, while raising his price target to $425 from $400. “Given the company’s usual conservatism, we would not be surprised if it ended up delivering closer to $25b in revenues and $7.00 in EPS,” Lamba said of Q3, though he’s current estimating $24.4 billion and $5.67. “The quarter’s results and our field checks continue to indicate that the company has a significant near term upside opportunity that can be captured by continued execution. The biggest bottleneck in its sales currently is its production process for iPads, which we expect to be resolved over the next couple of quarters.” Lamba notes that iPhone average selling price in the quarter of $660 “was the highest it has been since Apple’s December 2008 quarter.” Although the iPad will reduce margins, “We note that the company has gone from unprofitability or barely breaking even in FY01 and FY02 to above industry average margins today.”
• Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray: Reiterates an Overweight rating and a $554 price target, up from $483. Munster raised his unit shipment estimates for Apple for all but the iPod. This calendar year, he sees Apple selling 17.7 million Macs, 79 million iPhones, 32 million iPads, up from 17.5million, 73 million, and 27.4 million, respectively. He now models 42 million iPods, down from 47 million estimated previously. Munster muses on the trajectory of the iPhone: “Because of the iPhone’s high price (~$660 ASP) sales over-index to postpaid markets where carriers offer subsidies. A longer-term question is whether or not Apple will successfully address the prepaid (unsubsidized) phone market, which accounts for about three quarters of the world’s mobile phone unit sales. The company mentioned on last night’s call that iPhone sales in China (about 90% of the China market is prepaid) were up over 3x y/y suggesting either prepaid customers are paying up for the iPhone or prepaid customers are becoming postpaid customers. While a $660 iPhone is too expensive for the broader prepaid market, early indications suggest that the existing iPhone is in high enough demand to tap into at least part of the prepaid market over the next two years.”
• Brian Marshall, Gleacher & Co.: Reiterates a Buy rating and a $450 price target, up from $400 previously. His fiscal 2011 revenue estimate goes to $103.9 billion from $99.5 billion previously, while his EPS estimate rises to $25.85 from $23.54. “Sometimes we have to step back from our AAPL financial model and simply shake our heads in awe…it is amazing how it developed over the years. In CY08, AAPL generated ~$38.9bil of revenue with ~$9.2bil in operating profits (23.7% operating margin) with the iPhone representing ~23% of total sales. Today, we are introducing our CY12 estimates of ~$132.5bil in revenue and ~$40.9bil in operating profits (30.9% operating margin) with the iPhone generating ~46% of total sales. Over this 5-year timeframe, AAPL will have grown its revenue base more than three-fold while simultaneously more than quadrupling its operating profits (assuming our assumptions prove accurate). Furthermore, AAPL is currently supply constrained and only has ~5% share of the global handset and PC market with considerable runway ahead for growth.”
• Bill Shope, Goldman Sachs: Reiterates a Buy rating, while raising his price target to $470 from $450. He raised his 2011 estimate to $104.4 billion and $24.83 in EPS from a prior $101.4 million and $23.10. He sees $127.4 billion next year and $140 billion in 2013. Shope notes that operating profit margin of 31.9% was the highest in Apple’s history. “With the stock now trading at 9X our revised 2012 ex- cash EPS estimate and many sources of uncertainty resolved with the print, we believe the stock should begin to break out of its recent range.”
• T. Michael Walkley, Canaccord Genuity: Reiterates a Buy rating and a price target of $480. For Q3, Walkley expects iPad unit sales of 6.2 million, and his EPS estimate remains at $5.04 per share for the quarter. “In addition to solid growth for the iPhone in leading smartphone markets such as North America, we were impressed by the iPhone’s rapid growth in China. Management indicated China accounted for roughly 10% of total Apple sales in H1/F2011 and we believe China and other emerging markets such as India, Vietnam and Indonesia could drive a multi-year product cycle for Apple with the iPhone and also the iPad in these fast growth markets.”
• Rob Cihra, Caris & Co.: Reiterates a Buy rating and raises his price target to $500 from $460. He raised his revenue estimate this year to $105 billion from $104 billion and raised his EPS estimate to $25.67 from $23.81 previously. He also lowered his EPS estimate for Q3 from $5.29 to $5.04, to meet Apple’s forecast. Cihra’s unperturbed by the potential lack of a new iPhone this summer. “We think it’s mostly noise, as a 1-qtr bump in iPhone cycling does NOT change our view of the investment, since we see Apple and iPhone/ iOS now much more about “platform” vs. “product cycles.” And as we’ve outlined previously, products last maybe a year, “platforms” last decades.” Cihra also reflects on the possibility for “near-field communications” technology in the iPhone — possible, but it may take time: ” if Apple does ultimately add NFC to its iPhone it isn’t likely to just slap in a chip/radio (like some peers) but we think would wait until it had a comprehensive Apple-like “strategy” for leveraging its massive iTunes sub base (and perhaps balance sheet).”
• Brian Blair, Wedge Partners: “We feel like we correctly identified the outperformance of the iPhone, especially relative to much of the recent commentary around lower than expected iPhone volumes at Verizon. We did however, significantly miss the lower iPad units as our checks have pointed to a run rate suggesting a plausible 7 million unit number for the quarter. Our view is that we will see a unit number in that range for June. Our expectation has been for a June launch [of the iPhone 5], keeping with the history of the handset, but we are slowly moving to a view that September is accurate given that we still don’t believe production has begun or that orders are in place for a new model.”
• Kevin Dede, Brigantine Advisors: Reiterates a Buy rating and a $400 price target. He raised his June quarter view to $25.2 billion in revenue and $5.70 per share in EPS, from a prior $21 billion and $4.15. “Almost embarrassing after reducing our June expectations in consideration of the Japan disaster to Apple’s supply chain, we are now reversing course and raising them, even above where our estimates stood before lowering them last week. Inconceivable to us was Apple’s ability to find alternative sources for more than 100 components otherwise sourced from the quake and tsunami damaged area of Japan, and yet the company believes it can meet expectations set just a tad (about 3%) below existing Street consensus for the June quarter.”
• Tavis McCourt, Morgan Keegan: Reiterates an Outperform rating and raises his price target from $441 to $462. “Q2:11 was another very positive quarter of momentum for Apple, especially for iPhone and Mac product lines. We aren’t too concerned about iPad weakness sequentially as this was the product’s first March quarter, so it was hard to forecast exactly what the seasonal dip would be. However, Apple still clearly dominates this category and should experience strong sequential growth off of the March quarter. At this point it is hard to see what trips up Apple’s strong growth for several quarters going forward except for an exogenous shock to the economy.”
• Shaw Wu, Sterne Agee: Reiterates a Buy recommendation and a $445 price target. Wu raised his EPS estimate for the year to $24.50 from $23.50, while keeping his $101 million revenue estimate intact. ” It appears that we and many others underestimated the transition to iPad 2, which is an entirely new design. We had heard from our Asia-Pacific supply chain checks of as many as 3-4 million iPads per month production capacity but apparently this is in the process of being retooled and ramped for iPad 2.”
• Ben Reitzes, Barclays Capital: Reiterates an Overweight rating while raising his price target to $465 from $450. Reitzes cut his fiscal 2011 revenue estimate to $102.3 billion from a prior $103.8 billion on lower iPad estimates, while raising his EPS estimate to $24.30 from $23.50. “We now estimate iPad unit sales of 6.6 million for the June quarter (was 7.4 million) which could prove conservative depending on the ramp of production. We now estimate 26.7 million iPad units for FY11 (was 28.8 million) and 39.8 million for FY12 (was 40 million). While we believe demand for iPad 2 remains strong, we are slightly lowering our iPad estimates given the product has been difficult to track and we prefer to remain conservative.”
• Matthew Hoffman, Cowen & Co.: Reiterates an Outperform rating on Apple shares. He raised his Q3 EPS estimate to $5.44 from $5.30, while reiterating a projection of 8.4 million iPads to be sold this quarter. Hoffman’s fiscal 2011 EPS estimate goes to $25.05 from $23.43 previously.
• Alex Gauna, JMP Securities: Reiterates the Market Perform rating he had put in place back on March 16th. “We continue to caution that slowing supply chain dynamics that accurately presaged lackluster iPod performance and an iPad shortfall could still play out further in a June quarter that will not benefit from a new iPhone refresh.” Gauna raised his fiscal 2011 EPS estimate to $25.89 from $24.44, but says that he’s not changing his 2012 estimate of $28.40 until he knows more about the trends for the iPad 2 and the trends in the iPhone following last quarter’s introduction at Verizon.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

Street views are still pouring in regarding Apple’s (AAPL) fiscal Q2 report, which comes out this afternoon, after the bell.

Consensus stands at $23.38 billion in revenue and $5.37 per share in earnings.

Brian White with Ticonderoga Securities this morning reiterated a Buy recommendation on the shares and a $550 price target, writing that, “With the continued drama over the iPhone 5 launch date, the impact from Japan, rising component prices and never-ending concerns over the health of Steve Jobs, we believe investors will be hanging on Apple’s every word this evening.”

White is looking for $22.75 billion in revenue and $5.13 in EPS, but thinks Apple can “easily” beat that. As Abhey Lamba of ISI Group speculated yesterday, White cites Apple’s court documents in its patent suit against Samsung (SSNLF), announced monday. Those documents suggest Apple may have sold 18 million iPhones in the quarter, much higher than the 15.75 million he’d been estimating.

Like Lamba, he thinks the documents suggest only 4.2 million iPad units sold, but he also cautions that, “The potential disappointment in iPad sales could be due to the timing of revenue recognition for online iPad 2 sales that began on March 11 but were quickly greeted with 4-5 week shipping times, combined with yield issues at a touch screen vendor.”

Lamba, for his part, revisits his ruminations from yesterday. As several Tech Trader readers pointed out, the language in the court documents is, well, legalese, and could lead to misinterpretation:

Due to the way the court document is worded (using “as of” to describe iPhone shipments and “by” to highlight iPad units), the statement could also be interpreted to mean 19m iPad units through the beginning of March which would imply that Apple could report up to 7m iPad units for F2Q11. Current consensus forecasts for iPad shipments are in the 6.0-6.5m range. We note that iPad shipments of around 4m could result in a revenue shortfall of about $1b, which will be more than offset by better than expected iPhone units.

Lamba thinks the fiscal Q3 forecast may come up short of analysts’ estimates, given what may be a push-out of the next iPhone from a traditional summer introduction to September, compounded by Apple’s typical conservatism.

Hence, while Apple might actually be able to produce $22 billion to $22.5 billion in revenue in fiscal Q3, and EPS of $4.70 to $4.80, the company might only forecast $21 billion to $21.5 billion and $4.00 to $4.25 per share in earnings.

Consensus is currently $23.8 billion and $5.25.

Apple shares today are up $6.99, or 2%, at $344.85.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily