Will Apple (AAPL) Beat The Whispers?

With an earnings report pending for the 25th, and a hyped-up press conference on the 27th, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is poised to make a splash in the market.

Or sink to the bottom.

Rumors of Apple's new tablet PC, allegedly named the 'iSlate', have been flying furiously ever since CES. No one really knows what it will do, what it will look like - or even if it exists at all. Regardless, investors are eyeing both of those dates to see if Apple pulls off a double play of high earnings and a killer product.

The consensus EPS for Apple now is $2.07 per share. Last quarter Apple crushed the estimate by 28%, so it is entirely possible (and maybe even likely) that Apple will meet or exceed the estimate this time around. Whether or not it can beat the whisper number, though, is another question.

The whisper number basically forms an estimate of a stock's earnings based on investor expectations, designed to reflect expectations and post-earnings price movement. Many traders have turned to whisper numbers to better gauge the performance of a stock, since they are typically higher than consensus estimates. The failure of a stock to pass the whisper number, even if it exceeds the consensus estimate, can cause a stock to lose ground after earnings are released.

Apple's whisper number is 2.11, which means that the average expectation is 0.04 points higher per share than the consensus estimate. The disparity is not huge, but could still be influential if Apple just barely pokes over the estimate.

Then again, Apple could crush both metrics - which would likely send the stock back over 200 by a significant amount. The rise could be even higher in the long run if the iSlate is announced and turns out to be a phenomenal product. Some analysts expect the iSlate to be to tablet PCs what the iPhone was to mobile/smart phones. Whether that will be true has yet to be seen.

One thing is for sure, though. You can expect to see a lot of eyes anxiously eyeing this stock over the next week.