Apple, Inc. (AAPL – Free Report) is set to report its second-quarter fiscal 2017 results on May 2. Last quarter, it posted a 4.35% positive earnings surprise. The company has outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters, with an average positive earnings surprise of 0.89%.

Let’s see how things are shaping up prior to the announcement.

Earnings Whispers         

Our proven model shows that Apple is likely to beat earnings because it has the right combination of the two key ingredients. A stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen.

Zacks ESP: Apple currently has an Earnings ESP of +1.00%. This is because the Most Accurate estimate is $2.03 while the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $2.01.You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Apple has a Zacks Rank #3. This combined with the company’s Earnings ESP of +1.00%, makes us confident in looking for an earnings beat this quarter.

We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Apple Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Apple Inc. Price and EPS Surprise | Apple Inc. Quote

Factors to Consider

Apple’s revenues got a boost due to increase in iPhone demand caused by the launch of iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Also, “Services” revenues, which include App store, Apple Music and Apple Pay have registered impressive growth. Investors will be more interested in the second half of the year. This is because Apple will be launching its mega edition, iPhone 8 around that time.

iPhone 8 is set to be launched to mark the tenth anniversary of the revolutionary iPhone. It is reported to have amazing features like a glass body, a dual-curved edge-to-edge OLED display with a built-in Touch ID sensor and wireless charging. iPhone 8 is already dubbed as a “super cycle”.