Slash LaneApple Inc.'s market capitalization broke the $100 billion barrier for the first time on Wednesday, as shares of the company surged above $116 following a bullish research report from investment bank Morgan Stanley.
Coincidentally, it will be ten years this October since Dell founder Michael Dell weighed in with his thoughts on how he would fix the then beleaguered Mac maker.
"What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders," he told a crowd of several thousand IT executives at the time.
Shares of Apple were helped Wednesday by a research report from Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, which asserted that the Mac maker's operating leverage remained underappreciated by investors.
In the report, Huberty raised her price target on shares of the company by more than 35 percent, from $110 to $150, but also laid out a "bull case" scenario that could see shares rising as high as $225 over the next twelve months.
Under that best case, the analyst said, U.S.-based Mac market share would need to appreciate to 5 percent in 2007 and 6 percent in 2008, while iPhone would need to see strong global penetration to 24 million units in 2008.
The bull case scenario would also hinge on Apple introducing an ultraportable Mac device by next January that would sell 3 million units within its first year, the analyst said.
Shares of Apple were trading up $2.62 (or 2.29 percent) to $116.97 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq stock market.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
31 Comments
Hmm... Already one third of Microsoft. That's a lot!
Up, up, and away!
Heh heh heh... for fun, AppleInsider should trot some of the worst of the mass media 'beleaguered Apple' stories from the mid-to-late '90s. They would make for some hilarious reading now.
Its really amazing how many wannabe tech-pundit 'Nostradumbasses' piled on back then, trying to sound smart by making what they thought was the safe prediction of Apple's demise.
I'll bet less than 1% of those people ever came back later and said, "I was wrong." (and sure as hell Dvorak wasn't one of 'em). Ah well.
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PS- This just in: The few remaining Apple-hating, pro-MS fanboys wept, joined hands, sang 'Kumbaya', and engaged in a group hug today, reminiscing about the 'good old days' of Apple's near-demise.
"We had 'em", says prominent Apple-hater and forum troll Axel Nimrod Jr. "They almost went out of business in the '90s. But then stupid Jobs came back and ruined everything. Stupid iMac. Stupid OS X. Stupid iPod and iPhone. It should be a Dell-Vista-Zune world, and everyone knows it. Who cares if my computer or mp3 player is attractive and easy-to-use? Who cares how good the iPhone is? Microsoft has always been 'good enough' for me, in fact, 'good enough' is what they're all about."
This reporter resisted the urge to bitch-slap Nimrod Jr., but just barely. Back to you Connie.
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Well, I was telling people on these boards to buy when the stock was at around $50/share.
I happen to be more bullish than most on the impact that the iPhone will have on the stock price, so $150 is a pretty safe/conservative upper range for the stock.
At what price/share will the stock start being overpriced? Apple needs to continue gaining marketshare, release the true video iPods that everyone has been waiting for, and have better than expected iPhone sales. $150/share is a given, though.
At what price/share will the stock start being overpriced? Apple needs to continue gaining marketshare, release the true video iPods that everyone has been waiting for, and have better than expected iPhone sales. $150/share is a given, though.
That's all subjective. I wonder if it's a little steep right now, though it appears the Mac platform might be growing at the fastest rate ever, so it could still be a good value. iPhone expectations are in the price, and it's not out yet. Almost no one has printed a review of the final product. If, hypothetically, someone like Mossberg said don't buy it, then maybe there will be a major drop of the stock, but I really don't expect that. I think Apple gives Mossberg about a week to play with new devices, hopefully he'll tell us whether there are any significant problems.