Neil Hughes
Heading into the fall shopping season, Apple stock is investment firm Piper Jaffray's top large-cap pick for the rest of the year and into 2016, citing continued growth for the company's iPhone lineup led by the new 6s series.
Analyst Gene Munster said in a note to investors on Monday that he sees favorable trends for Apple heading forward. He believes investors will begin to price these benefits into the stock heading into 2016.
In addition to year-over-year growth for the iPhone platform, Munster also expects a strong holiday quarter driven by the Apple Watch, new iPad Pro, and Apple TV.
Specifically, he expects that Apple will offer guidance for the holiday quarter at the high end of Wall Street expectations, at about $77 billion. Apple will guide its December quarter results when it discloses its September quarter earnings next Tuesday, Oct. 27.
Munster is also bullish on the shift to new handset upgrade programs, which he believes will encourage consumers to buy new iPhones more frequently. His projections see Apple's own iPhone Upgrade Program helping to drive a tailwind of 10 percent more U.S. iPhone units over the next three years, through calendar year 2018.
Apple plans to launch its iPhone Upgrade Program internationally in the future, which he expects will help drive iPhone sales higher by 5 to 7 percent in the next four-plus years.
Finally, Munster is also bullish on Apple's anticipated "iPhone 7," which he believes will begin driving investor hype in the coming months, despite not being expected to debut until September of 2016. With a so-called "iPhone 7" expected to introduce a revamped design, he believes next year's upgrade will be a "more revolutionary cycle," driving sales of the blockbuster handset even higher.
Alongside its glowing endorsement of AAPL stock on Monday, Piper Jaffray has reiterated its "overweight" rating for shares of the company, with a 12-month price target of $172. Munster is among the most bullish analysts covering AAPL tracked by AppleInsider, and has maintained a $172 target since July.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
28 Comments
AAPL at 172... that would be a very nice Christmas present. Not sure Wall Street Grinch wants us to have this.
I wish. Doubt it though, the manipulators will never allow AAPL to be correctly valued.
One of the worst analysts out there.
Hey Gene!! Stop "helping".
I hope TC is buying back massive amount of stock. Including upcoming earnings announcement, PE ratio is going to drop to 11.75
It is a joke. The only way to take advantage of it is to remove large blocks of the stock from the market. Mr. Market is going to turn around one day, and 50% of Apple will have been "privatized" vs. 2010 levels. The long term implications if Apple can pull it off are profound, in terms of materially higher EPS and the ability to dramatically increase the dividend payout if they wish
Heck, they could conceivably buy back $300 billion of the company in five years. With no impacts in the investments they need to make. At $120 avg price, that would be 2.5 of 5.7 billion shares. 3.2 billion shares remaining. They could conceivably pay $10/share dividend on the remaining balance
Only if they sell a ton more iPhone 6s's... I can't find a Mac I would like to buy.