RBC ups Apple stock price target to $525 due to 'iPhone frenzy'

Posted:
in AAPL Investors edited January 2014


Investment bank RBC upped its price target for shares of Apple from $500 to $525 on Wednesday on expectations that the company will solidly beat Wall Street estimates for the first quarter of fiscal 2012 and offer healthy guidance going into the second quarter.



Analyst Mike Abramsky raised the firm's target on Wednesday In a note to investors entitled "iPhone Frenzy: Expecting Strong Q1 Results." The firm expects Apple to announce $40.2 billion in revenue and $11.00 earnings per share, up from prior projections of $38.6 billion and $10.00 EPS, next Tuesday.



RBC believes Wall Street will react favorably to the results because analysts' expectations were reset after transitions with Apple's iPhone product line during the September 2011 quarter resulted in a miss.



Abramsky believes Apple will report fiscal second quarter guidance of $32 billion in revenue and $8.00 EPS. Given that his estimates are slightly above Street guidance of $31.8 billion and $7.94 EPS, the analyst believes Apple's guidance will be "healthy." He also pointed out that fiscal second quarter guidance may include more global iPhone rollouts and the expected March launch of the third-generation iPad.



Global checks indicated "unprecedented iPhone sell-through," Abramsky said, noting stock outs in multiple regions. He estimates 32 million iPhones shipped in the December quarter, with 14.2 million coming from the U.S. A recent survey of analysts revealed that professionals expect 29.74 million units on average, while independent estimates were 33.4 million iPhones on average.











RBC expects Apple to report sales of 13 million iPads during the holiday quarter and 5.1 million Macs. The Street consensus for the iPad stands at 13.5 million units, according to one poll.



Apple reassured investors during its last quarterly earnings conference call that its fiscal first quarter would be a record-setting one. The company is guiding for unprecedented revenue of $37 billion during the period. The iPhone maker also said it is confident that it will break its all-time high for quarterly handset sales on the strength of the iPhone 4S launch.

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 30
    jason98jason98 Posts: 768member
    Apple will have to throw in the towel and guide modest Q2 and Q3 due to lack of a competitive iPhone model. Europe has already lost interest despite Cook's promises last summer to address the market.

    LTE/4"+ device better be released this year or the US/Asia will follow.
  • Reply 2 of 30
    If it goes to $525, I'll be selling out



    &



    Breakdancing all the way to the bank haha!
  • Reply 3 of 30
    shompashompa Posts: 343member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jason98 View Post


    Apple will have to throw in the towel and guide modest Q2 and Q3 due to lack of a competitive iPhone model. Europe has already lost interest despite Cook's promises last summer to address the market.

    LTE/4"+ device better be released this year or the US/Asia will follow.



    You know that less then 4% of phone purchases are LTE?

    The far majority are not tech nerds. LTE brings zero advantage to 99.99% of the users. Downloading blurays to your Iphone seems just stupid. Using you 1 gig datacap in minutes have to one of the more insane things to do?



    3G: 21 megabit

    LTE: 50 megabit



    With data caps: WHO CARES?



    Todays LTE stuff have a battery penalty of 50% that is why Apple have to wait for 28nm LTE. Apple is hugely motivated to move to LTE simply because Apple pays Nokia over 1 dollar per 3G device in licensing fee's. Going to pure LTE would eliminate that fee.



    BTW. I hate tech nerds who only look at numbers. That does not drive the user experience. Especially since most tech nerds don't have a clue and believe that 1.2ghz always is better the 1ghz, that 12 megapixels always are better then 8 megapixels. This is PC thinking and disregards design and optimization.



    When you buy a car: sure performance is a small part of why you buy a specific car, but nobody is so insane that they buy a Skoda with 120HP instead of a BMW with 110HP. Its about design, how useful its for the consumer, how much fuel it draws, safety and so on. This is what computer industry will be like because its mass market, not nerd market.



    Nerd market is for Android.
  • Reply 4 of 30
    yvo84yvo84 Posts: 84member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jason98 View Post


    Apple will have to throw in the towel and guide modest Q2 and Q3 due to lack of a competitive iPhone model. Europe has already lost interest despite Cook's promises last summer to address the market.

    LTE/4"+ device better be released this year or the US/Asia will follow.



    You're really just talking about yourself here. Don't speak on behalf of a whole continent.
  • Reply 5 of 30
    nceencee Posts: 857member
    I know that around here, we can't even use the 3G features on phones, so 4G is just a dream. As for the rest of the country, I hear similar stores. So while some folks can use 3 and 4G, I'm not sure if the masses can, or if it matters to them.



    It's very nice or at least cool, to have the latest and greatest of anything, but why pay for something you can't use?



    Skip
  • Reply 6 of 30
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by shompa View Post


    You know that less then 4% of phone purchases are LTE?

    The far majority are not tech nerds. LTE brings zero advantage to 99.99% of the users. Downloading blurays to your Iphone seems just stupid. Using you 1 gig datacap in minutes have to one of the more insane things to do?



    3G: 21 megabit

    LTE: 50 megabit



    With data caps: WHO CARES?



    It's not all about bandwidth. Latency plays a big role and LTE's latency is a vast improvement over 3G. When browsing the web, improved latency is very noticeable.



    However, I agree that the iPhone 4S's lack of LTE isn't a big issue. It's still a great product and it's evident that Apple has sold a lot of them.
  • Reply 7 of 30
    just_mejust_me Posts: 590member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ncee View Post


    I know that around here, we can't even use the 3G features on phones, so 4G is just a dream. As for the rest of the country, I hear similar stores. So while some folks can use 3 and 4G, I'm not sure if the masses can, or if it matters to them.



    It's very nice or at least cool, to have the latest and greatest of anything, but why pay for something you can't use?



    Skip



    You cant get use 3g? Why do even have a smartphone?



    I have unlimited data and when the next iphone comes out and it finally has LTE I will be happy and damn sure be using the LTE to its fullest.
  • Reply 8 of 30
    stelligentstelligent Posts: 2,680member
    "RBC ups Apple stock price target to $525 due to 'iPhone frenzy'"



    So the next version is going to be named iPhone Frenzy. I like it. To be followed by iPhone Fonzi.
  • Reply 9 of 30
    just_mejust_me Posts: 590member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by shompa View Post


    You know that less then 4% of phone purchases are LTE?

    The far majority are not tech nerds. LTE brings zero advantage to 99.99% of the users. Downloading blurays to your Iphone seems just stupid. Using you 1 gig datacap in minutes have to one of the more insane things to do?



    3G: 21 megabit

    LTE: 50 megabit



    With data caps: WHO CARES?



    Todays LTE stuff have a battery penalty of 50% that is why Apple have to wait for 28nm LTE. Apple is hugely motivated to move to LTE simply because Apple pays Nokia over 1 dollar per 3G device in licensing fee's. Going to pure LTE would eliminate that fee.



    BTW. I hate tech nerds who only look at numbers. That does not drive the user experience. Especially since most tech nerds don't have a clue and believe that 1.2ghz always is better the 1ghz, that 12 megapixels always are better then 8 megapixels. This is PC thinking and disregards design and optimization.



    When you buy a car: sure performance is a small part of why you buy a specific car, but nobody is so insane that they buy a Skoda with 120HP instead of a BMW with 110HP. Its about design, how useful its for the consumer, how much fuel it draws, safety and so on. This is what computer industry will be like because its mass market, not nerd market.



    Nerd market is for Android.



    Not everyone has data caps.

    3G from my experience on ATT ranges from 0.5 to 6, no where close to 21.

    LTE from what I have seen in my area ranges from 10 to 28
  • Reply 10 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jason98 View Post


    Apple will have to throw in the towel and guide modest Q2 and Q3 due to lack of a competitive iPhone model. Europe has already lost interest despite Cook's promises last summer to address the market.

    LTE/4"+ device better be released this year or the US/Asia will follow.



    Considering that the LTE roll-out is even slower in Europe than it is in the US, I declare your comment pure BS.
  • Reply 11 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Just_Me View Post


    Not everyone has data caps.



    ...yet, and don't rely on being grandfathered in. that contract you signed likely has a line allowing your carrier to change policy at any moment without warning.
  • Reply 12 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by stelligent View Post


    "RBC ups Apple stock price target to $525 due to 'iPhone frenzy'"



    So the next version is going to be named iPhone Frenzy. I like it.



    It's going to be total iPhone Frenzy frenzy !
  • Reply 13 of 30
    d-ranged-range Posts: 396member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Just_Me View Post


    Not everyone has data caps.

    3G from my experience on ATT ranges from 0.5 to 6, no where close to 21.

    LTE from what I have seen in my area ranges from 10 to 28



    And how long does it take before your battery runs down?



    Even if (and that's a really, very big IF) you have LTE coverage that is actually a lot faster than 3G (which precludes almost everyone except people in a few major US cities and even less EU ones), the current 4G chipsets are simply terrible, plain and simple. Right now, every LTE phone uses a 1st generation LTE baseband alongside a 2G/3G baseband, which means you get terrible battery life. Everybody knows this, including the likes of Qualcomm, who make almost all LTE baseband chips. A full year ago Qualcomm itself has said that they have a much better baseband chip coming that does 2G/3G and LTE, and uses less power than just the LTE baseband in current phones.



    You have to be bonkers to buy an LTE phone today if you know that they are nothing but prototypes right now, proof of concept that the technology works, that's it. This year the new LTE chipsets will hit the market that will in one swell swoop obsolete every LTE phone currently in existence. Leave all current LTE phone owners with a phone that runs out of juice in under 4 hours when is LTE enabled, and a full year left on their contract. It's the price you pay if you want to be an early adopter.
  • Reply 14 of 30
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,004member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by OllieWallieWhiskers View Post


    ...yet, and don't rely on being grandfathered in. that contract you signed likely has a line allowing your carrier to change policy at any moment without warning.



    I know! I'm paying AT&T $5 extra a month to keep unlimited data on the assumption that I may need it in the future--knowing full well that when I need it, they will surely take it away...
  • Reply 15 of 30
    This reminds of a post made October 4th, 2010 by zindako:







    Even if it didn't reach $430, it was pretty close
  • Reply 16 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Garamond View Post


    This reminds of a post made October 4th, 2010 by zindako:







    Even if it didn't reach $430, it was pretty close



    Nice one.



    It's a fools' errand to forecast stock prices.
  • Reply 17 of 30
    ... and there's no WAY this bubble will burst...
  • Reply 18 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Just_Me View Post


    You cant get use 3g? Why do even have a smartphone?



    I have unlimited data and when the next iphone comes out and it finally has LTE I will be happy and damn sure be using the LTE to its fullest.



    I am not sure where you live or what carrier you have but if it is in America with AT&T or Verizon you won't be getting unlimited LTE (you can't grandfather 3G data and upgrade to LTE). Of course you WILL be paying more for LTE if you decide to upgrade with an iPhone that supports it.



    AT&T and Verizon do not offer unlimited data and Sprint is a huge question mark with what they will offer when their LTE becomes a go. You can of course stay on 3G with your unlimited data but why get a LTE phone then, eh?
  • Reply 19 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Habañero View Post


    ... and there's no WAY this bubble will burst...



    The constant analyst pushing of Apple is becoming a big flashing neon sign to get out.
  • Reply 20 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bronze View Post


    The constant analyst pushing of Apple is becoming a big flashing neon sign to get out.



    The constant analyst pushing of Apple is a big flashing neon sign that they all need fired since it's obvious Apple won't be getting to $666 by next month.
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