JP Morgan raises Apple price target to $420, Kaufman Bros to $395
JP Morgan
Analyst Mark Moskowitz sees Apple stock growing to $420 in the next year with the company riding high on another growth spurt. He believes Apple will see balanced growth along all of its main product lines.
"While the iPhone and iPad are expected to be the biggest contributors to revenue growth in the near to mid term, the Mac business is expected to be an important contributor as well," he wrote in a note to investors Thursday. "By the end of (fiscal year) 2011, we expect the Mac to regain prominence in the Apple growth story as the company addresses the multi-billion dollar opportunity in the Target Zone of PCs."
He also said that the anticipated launch of the iPhone on Verizon's network in the U.S. will increase the devices sale's momentum, adding at least $1.25 incremental earnings per share on an annual basis.
Moskowitz also significantly increased his projected iPad sales in 2011, from a previous prediction of 21.3 million to his new projection of 26.6 million. The analyst sees Apple selling a total of 60 million iPhones, 46 million iPods, and 17.3 million Macs in the company's 2011 fiscal year.
In July, Moskowitz increased his projected price for AAPL stock to $390 by Dec. 2011, also citing growth of the iPhone and iPad.
Kaufman Bros.
Analyst Shaw Wu said checks with supply chain have found continued constraints for the new MacBook Air, as well as shortages of the iPod nano and some iPod touch models. He also said that iPhone and iPad momentum are stronger than he previously expected.
"Our triangulation of data points from our proprietary checks and market research indicate that the strength we saw through Black Friday weekend... is carrying into the present," Wu said. "This is leading us to believe this will be another holiday season with more users allocating more of their tight budgets to Apple's platforms."
Accordingly Wu has raised his estimates for Apple, increasing the price target from $380 to $395. He also sees Apple selling 4.2 million Macs in the December quarter, along with 6.1 million iPads, 16 million iPhones and 17 million iPods.
35 Comments
All of these reports should come with the caveat "all other things being equal." And since when are all other things equal? If employment growth continues to be anemic, if GDP reports continue to underwhelm, if the European debt crisis spreads, all bets are off.
All of these reports should come with the caveat "all other things being equal." And since when are all other things equal? If employment growth continues to be anemic, if GDP reports continue to underwhelm, if the European debt crisis spreads, all bets are off.
How long did Shaw Wu have his $250 price target while AAPL was sitting at $100 after the crash? Need some disclaimers...
But, unless China has a complete meltdown impacting purchasing power, and the ability to produce AAPL's goods, I'd say the next 12 months looks pretty optimistic...
All of these reports should come with the caveat "all other things being equal." And since when are all other things equal? If employment growth continues to be anemic, if GDP reports continue to underwhelm, if the European debt crisis spreads, all bets are off.
Apple did amazingly well during the market crash, bank failures and recession. I'm a big Apple fan, but even I thought, especially because Apple has always been considered to be a high price producer, that Apple was going to have really tough times during that period (which largely continues today.)
Obviously people who are out of work or who have lost their homes are not customers for most of Apple's products. But I think in times when money is tight, people buy fewer things, but they want the things they do buy to have quality. And Apple is perceived to have quality and to be a "must have". I ride the NYC subways and I'm constantly amazed at the number of people walking around with an iPad or a new iPhone, most of whom are not business people or college students from the suburbs, but average, poorly dressed, working class people, frequently traveling to/from not great neighborhoods. This would surprise me in good times, but it especially surprises me in bad times. But the Apple stores in NYC are crowded ALL the time (and at least one of them is open 24 hours a day.)
I'm a tech consultant and the other thing I've seen is a remarkable turnaround in businesses for Apple's products, driven initially by the iPhone and now by the iPad. Businesses which would never consider anything but cheap Dell machines were "forced" by their employees to adopt the iPhone and then iPhone users started using the iPad. And then people started adopting Macs and while generally, they're limited to certain departments (usually creative tasks, marketing, etc.), I'm seeing more and more. And since so many people work wirelessly today over WiFi, the network communications issues are diminished.
what are they at JP?
nice price target!
All of these reports should come with the caveat "all other things being equal." And since when are all other things equal? If employment growth continues to be anemic, if GDP reports continue to underwhelm, if the European debt crisis spreads, all bets are off.
I'm not so sure about that. People still want some luxury. If what we read about Tv sales being down at BB because iPads were selling is true, which was partly retracted later, because, I think, from outside pressure, then people are shifting their priorities. If those priorities are permanently shifted, then Apple is in a good position. People may not want to spend $1,500 for a 3D Tv, but they might not mind spending $650 for an iPad, or $299 for an iPod Touch. They don't seem to mind spending for a MacBook Air.