Prince McLeanSeveral Wall Street analysts increased their price targets on shares of Apple Inc. Thursday, following a late-night surge in the gadget makers stock that saw its valuation surpass that of industry heavyweight Hewlett-Packard.
The late night surge boosted the iPhone maker's market cap — or perceived public value — to over $127 billion, leapfrogging long-time rival HP, which is valued at approximately $124 billion.
After surpassing Dell's valuation earlier in the year, Apple is now treading on the heels of several other high-tech firms, include Intel ($141 billion) and IBM ($175 billion).
On average, analysts on Wall Street believe Apple shares are poised to gain even further ground in the coming months, with several using research notes on Thursday to increase their 12-month price targets on shares of the Cupertino-based firm.
"We believe bears remain too pessimistic in underestimating Apple's profit potential and ability to generate strong cash flow," said AmTech analyst Shaw Wu, who upped his target to $185 from $165. "Moreover, bears have also underestimated bulls' ability to form more realistic expectations and focused too much on overzealous and sometimes outright irrational estimates."
Over at Pacific Crest, analyst Andy Hargreaves made a similar move in bumping his old $130 target to $175. "Back-to-school sales, expanded distribution and a likely refresh of the iMac product lineup should drive Mac sales growth above 30 percent in fiscal [Q4]," he told clients. "We believe that Apple can continue to drive strong growth in high-margin service and accessory sales, which should benefit gross margin, despite the likely negative impact of rising component costs."
Also commenting on an impending overhaul to the iMac line (as well as full-screen iPods) was Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey, who increased his Apple price target to $165. "iPhone hype notwithstanding, with the heart of Apple’s product cycle about to begin, we want to stay with the stock," he wrote in a note to clients. "In the September quarter, Apple will finish up a refresh of its entire Mac line-up, rounding it out with a redesigned iMac."
Other firms increasing their price target on Apple shares Thursday included JMP Securities ($160), Caris & Co. ($165), UBS ($175), Credit Suisse ($185), Deutsche Bank ($200), and PiperJaffray ($211).
Shares of Apple retreated only slightly from Wednesday evening's run-up and were trading up 6.75 percent, or $9.27, to $146.53 early Thursday afternoon.
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Surpassing HP's valuation is not a surprise as anyone who is facile in the inner workings of HP knows they are living on borrowed time; is governed by a CEO who only knows how to increase the bottom line through head count cuts (and very little else); a company who's innovation and core values went down the drain with Bill and Dave.
Apple deserves what they have earned, and will be a hallmark for tech in the decades to come...long after HP is only remembered as a garage somewhere in Silicon Valley.
Several Wall Street analysts increased their price targets on shares of Apple Inc. Thursday, following a late-night surge in the gadget makers stock that saw its valuation surpass that of industry heavyweight Hewlett-Packard.
Shares of Apple rose over 7 percent Wednesday in after hours trading on the Nasdaq stock market after the company said third quarter profits rose some 73 percent to $818 million.
The late night surge boosted the iPhone maker's market cap -- or perceived public value -- to over $127 billion, leapfrogging long-time rival HP, which is valued at approximately $124 billion.
After surpassing Dell's valuation earlier in the year, Apple is now treading on the heels of several other high-tech firms, include Intel ($141 billion) and IBM ($175 billion).
On average, analysts on Wall Street believe Apple shares are poised to gain even further ground in the coming months, with several using research notes on Thursday to increase their 12-month price targets on shares of the Cupertino-based firm.
"We believe bears remain too pessimistic in underestimating Apple's profit potential and ability to generate strong cash flow," said AmTech analyst Shaw Wu, who upped his target to $185 from $165. "Moreover, bears have also underestimated bulls' ability to form more realistic expectations and focused too much on overzealous and sometimes outright irrational estimates."
Over at Pacific Crest, analyst Andy Hargreaves made a similar move in bumping his old $130 target to $175. "Back-to-school sales, expanded distribution and a likely refresh of the iMac product lineup should drive Mac sales growth above 30 percent in fiscal [Q4]," he told clients. "We believe that Apple can continue to drive strong growth in high-margin service and accessory sales, which should benefit gross margin, despite the likely negative impact of rising component costs."
Also commenting on an impending overhaul to the iMac line (as well as full-screen iPods) was Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey, who increased his Apple price target to $165. "iPhone hype notwithstanding, with the heart of Apple?s product cycle about to begin, we want to stay with the stock," he wrote in a note to clients. "In the September quarter, Apple will finish up a refresh of its entire Mac line-up, rounding it out with a redesigned iMac."
Other firms increasing their price target on Apple shares Thursday included JMP Securities ($160) and Deutsche Bank ($200).
Shares of Apple retreated only slightly from Wednesday evening's run-up and were trading up 6.75 percent, or $9.27, to $146.53 early Thursday afternoon.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
This is all good stuff.
I believe when folks look at the base of OLD iPod's out there, how many will purchase the new and improved when it comes out, then the New iPhones, New OS, and ALL of the other new stuff coming from Apple, this stock is just starting it's climb.Skip
And now the #1 PC weenie in the world is admiting he likes Macs....And recommends them to other people.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2162397,00.asp
Apple is a rocket blasting off.
And now the #1 PC weenie in the world is admiting he likes Macs....And recommends them to other people.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2162397,00.asp
Apple is a rocket blasting off.
Holy cow. Never thought I'd see that old crank changing his mind... then again, he never really tried it before, so it makes sense.
Surpassing HP's valuation is not a surprise as anyone who is facile in the inner workings of HP knows they are living on borrowed time; is governed by a CEO who only knows how to increase the bottom line through head count cuts (and very little else); a company who's innovation and core values went down the drain with Bill and Dave.
Apple deserves what they have earned, and will be a hallmark for tech in the decades to come...long after HP is only remembered as a garage somewhere in Silicon Valley.
Hp is doing well, they've surpassed Dell as the world's number 1 PC supplier, they are making very good profits. They did have a bad patch, but then, so did Apple.