Stocks to Watch: Apple, Texas Instruments, Facebook

NEW YORK -- Apple (AAPL) holds a big media event in San Francisco Wednesday where it's widely expected the tech giant will launch the iPhone 5.

TheStreet will be live-blogging Apple's product launch.

Massive pent-up demand looks set to drive record sales of the iPhone during the coming quarters.

"We anticipate that iPhone 5 will drive a significant product cycle and put a lot of pressure on competitors," noted Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee, in a recent note. "The previous update from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4S was arguably a relatively minor one with Siri being the biggest new feature. Despite that, a record number of iPhones were sold."

Wu said he expects Apple to sell a massive 45 million iPhones during the December quarter, well above its previous record of 37 million iPhones in the same quarter last year.

Apple iPhone 5: The Potential Winners

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Texas Instruments (TXN), the chipmaker, on Tuesday maintained the top end of its earnings outlook for its fiscal third quarter.

Texas Instruments issued its mid-quarter update for the three months ending September, narrowing its view to earnings of 38 cents to 42 cents a share from a prior forecast for a profit of 34 cents to 42 cents a share. TI now expects revenue of between $3.27 billion to $3.41 billion for the quarter vs. its previous range of $3.21 billion to $3.47 billion.

The average estimate of analysts is for earnings of 45 cents a share in the quarter on revenue of $3.34 billion.

TI Shares Gain on Narrowed Outlook

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Facebook (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he was disappointed in the performance of the social networking giant's stocks since its IPO at an appearance at a media conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Zuckerberg also disclosed the company wasn't building a Facebook phone, saying that "building a phone is the wrong strategy for us. "

Mark Zuckerberg: 'I Just Want to Build Good Stuff'

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Ford's (F) board is expected this week to discuss a succession plan for CEO Alan Mulally, who is expected to retire by the end of 2013, according to Bloomberg, which cited a person familiar with the matter.

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Pall Corp. (PLL), the maker of filtration and purification products, is expected by analysts Wednesday to post fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of 77 cents a share on revenue of $718.9 million.

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-- Written by Joseph Woelfel



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