Time flies when you're having fun -- it seems like it was only a few weeks ago that we were enjoying the Q3 earnings report from Apple, Inc.

Well, today the wizards of Cupertino are on the phone again with top Wall Street analysts to report how the company did during the fourth quarter (July - September, 2009). Many analysts are expecting Apple to continue its recession-defying high wire act, with an analyst poll by Thomson Reuters Financial showing an earnings forecast of US$1.42 per share. That's 13 percent over the same quarter a year ago, and higher than Apple's own forecast of US$1.18 - US$1.23 per share.

As usual, we'll be covering the earnings call via CoverItLive. Drop by TUAW at approximately 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT) and join us. Bring your questions, and we'll supply the news and commentary.

Citi analyst Richard Gardner repeated the firm's "buy" recommendation for Apple stock, but reduced his estimate through 2011 to "reflect a more conservative view of consumer spending," according to the Associated Press.

Gardner reduced his 12-month price target to $132 from $153. He noted "soft" iPhone shipments in the last quarter of 2008 and conservative guidance for the first quarter of 2009 as reasons behind the cut.

"We view weakness as a buying opportunity," Gardner said. If Apple's stock were to drop by $7 or $8 before the company's Q1 2009 conference call on January 21, "[Citi] would be aggressive buyers." He expects the company will announce a profit of $1.42 per share for Q4 2008 during the call.

AAPL was down by about $1.45 in afternoon trading.

[Via Mac Observer.]

Apple shares were higher by over 11 points in after-hours trading following a very positive Q4 conference call where the company announced a profit of $1.26 per diluted share.

As we noted in our liveblog earlier, Apple posted a profit of $1.14 billion on revenues of $7.9 billion for the quarter. The company also said it had sold 2.6 million Macs, 11 million iPods, and 6.8 million iPhones in the three months ending September 27. It's safe to say we're past the 10 million mark for iPhone unit sales.

Apple's margins for the quarter fell by a tenth of a percent from Q3 to 34.7 percent. During the Q3 conference call, Apple was careful to mention that margins would be lower for the quarter due to a new product announcement. That guidance was out of an abundance of caution, and executives noted that all new product announcements related to that margin guidance have been made. Apple's margins this time a year ago were 1.1 percent lower, at 33.6 percent.

Steve Jobs himself was on the call, a rarity, and he crowed about how Apple sold more handsets than RIM did. He also mentioned Apple's significant cash reserves of $25 billion and lack of debt.

The conference call made no mention of the exclusion of FireWire on new MacBooks, nor any confirmation that the Mac mini line could either be seeing a refresh or end-of-life.