Cowen raises Apple target to $135, sees 80M iPhones shipping this holiday

Ahead of Apple's September quarter earnings report, investment firm Cowen and Company on Monday increased its price target to $135, with sales forecasts higher than consensus on Wall Street.

Analyst Timothy Arcuri believes Apple this week will report sales of 50 million iPhones and 9.5 million iPads, on its way to yet another record quarter. Revenue for the quarter is expected to be around $51.5 billion, with $1.87 earnings per share.

Looking ahead to the December frame, Arcuri sees Apple shipping between 78 million and 80 million iPhones during the quarter, which would be yet another record for the company. He has increased his projected revenues for the December quarter to $80.1 billion, with an earnings per share estimate of $3.34.

Arcuri sees iPhone sales continuing to grow on strong demand from China, where the iPhone 6s launched on day-one. He also expects ongoing momentum from users switching from Android handsets, and also demand upside from the new Apple iPhone Upgrade Program.

And in 2016, Arcuri believes Apple could help boost sales mid-cycle with a refreshed, smaller 4-inch iPhone. Arcuri's supply chain sources have indicated that the company has worked on a new 4-inch handset, serving as a successor to the iPhone 5s.

Despite increasing his price target, Arcuri has maintained a "market perform" rating on shares of AAPL. He said on Monday that the company's stock has "broadly entered a holding pattern, albeit with upward bias."

Apple will report the results of its September quarter after markets close on Tuesday. AppleInsider will have full coverage.

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52 Comments

rogifan

said about 8 years ago

Here's what's so perverse about Apple. Going into earnings we have a bunch of nervous nellies with their iPhone fears. Part of the reason the stock was down 3% today when a lot of tech stocks were up big. Yet according to posters on Phillip Elmer Dewitt's blog the "whisper numbers" for the quarter have been creeping up. And now we have this from Cowan. So on the one hand you have iPhone fears driving the stock down and on the other estimates being raised which will also drive the stock down when Apple reports and doesn't exceed the "whisper numbers". Apple is set up to fail no matter what while Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook are all at record highs. And now the day before earnings Reuters is out with a hit piece about ?Pay growth slowing according to a research firm no one has ever heard of. I doubt the timing of the story is coincidental. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-pay-growth-slows-launch-192349208.html

tedk

said about 8 years ago

Exactly, Rogifan. The Street players will hold back AAPL as needed to help their positions, but they can't hold it down forever. (I hope.)

palomine

said about 8 years ago

I call a bottom! This is surely capitulation when sog35 wants to sell !:D

tedk

said about 8 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by sog35

just wasting your breath.

None of this will ever change unless Apple's goes private.

I'm done with this piece of shit stock. Once I get a decent price I'm selling everything. The only way I'll buy Apple stock again is if its undervalued by 50% or they go private.

Apple is a stock to trade. Buy on the rumor, sell on the news.

Buy right after earnings, sell right before dividends.

Absolutely pathetic that a $700 billion stock gets tossed around like a cheap trick.

Apple is not going private. The stock is pretty much undervalued by 30-50% now - see consensus price targets and its PE ratio. Also, if it goes private, then you can't buy it, right? Apple gets ridiculously manipulated and it's proof of how screwed up the market is. Meanwhile it's huge and growing fast - you can't suppress the truth forever. Long term hold.

tedk

said about 8 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by sog35

Oh yes they can. Wall Street has held down Apple's share price for most of the last 10 years.

Even when Apple was growing revenue and profits over 100% YoY they still did not get a PE over 20. Right now Microsoft has a PE of 35 with 5% revenue growth.

There were 2 exceptions: late 2012 and early this year. Besides that Apple has been held down 20-40% lower than its fair value.

It will never change. When Wall Street firms buy and sell the same 1,000 Apple shares back to each other THOUSANDS of times a day, they can easily drop the price any time they want. All the need to do is setup their algo machines and keep buying and selling shares for 1 cent less. Do this thousands of times and the stock drop like today.

sog, look at the ten year chart and tell me the company's value isn't going up - from about 8 ten years ago to a high of 130, let's say. That's a 15 fold increase, which turns molehills into mountains, but it takes patience.