Neil Hughes
Recent struggles for Apple stock are based on unfounded fears out of China, FBR Capital Markets said on Tuesday, telling investors it believes the "speed bump" will be over soon as strong iPhone sales continue.
Analyst Daniel H. Ives raised his estimates for Apple's just-concluded June quarter, in which he believes the company shipped 49 million iPhones, though he said the 50 million barrier is "within reach." A copy of Ives's latest estimates were provided to AppleInsider.
He believes Apple's revenue for the quarter was $49.2 billion, with earnings per share at $1.79. Those are increases from his previous estimates of $47.8 billion in revenue and $1.72 EPS.
FBR's new, higher estimates come as the firm has also reiterated its "outperform" rating for AAPL stock. With continued iPhone growth, Ives believes shares of the company will reach $185 within the next year.
With a week to go before Apple reveals the results of the June quarter, shares of the company are down about 5 percent since it reported its March earnings. But to Ives, those recent losses are a mere "speed bump" on the way to future continued growth.
"Ultimately we see more legs to the iPhone 6 product cycle than the Street is anticipating for the next few quarters, with China (despite recent macro headwinds) as a major driver of top-line growth, coupled by new products (Watch, Apple Pay, streaming) starting to pave the way for future avenues of consumer penetration," Ives wrote.
With new products on the horizon, most notably an anticipated iPhone refresh in September, he believes Apple is positioned strongly heading into its 2016 fiscal year.
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22 Comments
Apple to $185: That would be a 1 Trillion $ Apple wouldn't it? I don't see that coming quite so soon but hey ... here's hoping! :smokey:
The real problem Apple has it the fact no institutional buyers is going to over buy Apple, they are too afraid it will fall and they do not want to be caught holding the bag. There are far too many example of a company like Apple falling to the waste side that Wall street is invest on habit not logic or reasoning. As fas as they are concern is Apple is at the top and there is no other top for them. Until some other company starts catching up they do not care. With that said, I wish I could be rational and realize that it most likely will not go up from here and sell and walk away, but they lock me in with the dividends which are paying out for me greater than any other investment.
I hope Tim and team are aggressively buying back shares at these prices
These high target prices are very annoying to Apple shareholders. Even a high target price makes Apple's share price go into the red. If it were Netflix, Google or Amazon, their share prices would have gone up 5% on that type of news. With Apple, it's like nothing good was announced. The institutional investors are staying away from Apple because they can't forget what happened back in 2012 when Apple went into a death spiral. How the heck does a company like Hewlett-Packard have nearly 80% institutional ownership and Apple only has 61% institutional ownership. H-P is practically struggling for survival. The big boy investors don't like or trust Tim Cook. If Jeff Bezos tells investors something, he's totally believed. If Tim Cook tells investors something, he's called a liar. It appears as though Apple shareholders are going to remain snake-bit for quite some time to come. For Apple shareholders, no news is good news and merely a precursor of doom.
Look at that graph, it'll go to $140 pretty soon.