Apple shares rebound as UBS ups price target to $108
Shares of Apple Computer rose over 2 percent to regained some of Monday's losses after UBS Investment Research issued a bullish research note in which it raised its price target on the iPod maker.
Analyst Ben Reitzes, who maintains a Buy rating on shares of Apple, increased his price target to $108 from $95, citing healthy sales of iPod digital music players during the early going of the holiday shopping season.
"Our checks point toward solid iPod sales for new shuffles & certain nanos along with momentum in Macs and prospects for higher accessories & software longer-term," he wrote in a note to clients.
Reitzes bumped his estimates on the Cupertino, Calif.-based company for the December quarter to $0.80 in earnings per shares on 11 percent revenue growth to $6.4 billion, up from $0.78 and $6.3 billion. He also increased his quarterly iPod unit sales forecast by approximately 1 million units to 16.56 million, but made no changes to his Mac model of 44 percent growth to 1.8 million units.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2007, the analyst said Apple's higher Mac sales may lead to better sales of software, which he estimates will grow 22 percent to $1.56 billion in revenue. He's modeling the company to earn $2.84 per share on 23 percent revenue growth to $23.76B, up from $2.75 and $23.25 billion.
"Also, we wouldn?t be surprised to see Apple pull up the launch date of its new OSX Leopard in order to pre-empt Microsoft Vista," he told clients. "Another area that could benefit in [fiscal 2007] is sales of "other music & accessories" as Apple sells more movies (we believe Apple will sign-up more movie studios for iTunes beyond just Disney)."
Assuming Apple can maintain its Mac share gains and continue to reinvigorate the iPod line with video, gaming and WiFi-related features, Reitzes projects the company will earn $3.35 per share on 18 percent revenue growth to $28 billion in fiscal 2008.
"We continue to believe Apple will launch new products in calendar '07 including cell phones, iTV and even ultraportable devices," he wrote.
Analyst Ben Reitzes, who maintains a Buy rating on shares of Apple, increased his price target to $108 from $95, citing healthy sales of iPod digital music players during the early going of the holiday shopping season.
"Our checks point toward solid iPod sales for new shuffles & certain nanos along with momentum in Macs and prospects for higher accessories & software longer-term," he wrote in a note to clients.
Reitzes bumped his estimates on the Cupertino, Calif.-based company for the December quarter to $0.80 in earnings per shares on 11 percent revenue growth to $6.4 billion, up from $0.78 and $6.3 billion. He also increased his quarterly iPod unit sales forecast by approximately 1 million units to 16.56 million, but made no changes to his Mac model of 44 percent growth to 1.8 million units.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2007, the analyst said Apple's higher Mac sales may lead to better sales of software, which he estimates will grow 22 percent to $1.56 billion in revenue. He's modeling the company to earn $2.84 per share on 23 percent revenue growth to $23.76B, up from $2.75 and $23.25 billion.
"Also, we wouldn?t be surprised to see Apple pull up the launch date of its new OSX Leopard in order to pre-empt Microsoft Vista," he told clients. "Another area that could benefit in [fiscal 2007] is sales of "other music & accessories" as Apple sells more movies (we believe Apple will sign-up more movie studios for iTunes beyond just Disney)."
Assuming Apple can maintain its Mac share gains and continue to reinvigorate the iPod line with video, gaming and WiFi-related features, Reitzes projects the company will earn $3.35 per share on 18 percent revenue growth to $28 billion in fiscal 2008.
"We continue to believe Apple will launch new products in calendar '07 including cell phones, iTV and even ultraportable devices," he wrote.
Comments
The higher the stock the more Apple goodies I'll be giving this xmas
The more analysts agree, the more worried I'll be.
This Ben will have you hiding in your den...!
Shares of Apple Computer rose over 2 percent to regained some of Monday's losses after UBS Investment Research issued a bullish research note in which it raised its price target on the iPod maker.
Cause and effect - are we sure share rise was *directly* due to UBS research note?
Analyst Ben Reitzes, who maintains a Buy rating on shares of Apple, increased his price target to $108 from $95, citing healthy sales of iPod digital music players during the early going of the holiday shopping season.
"Our checks point toward solid iPod sales for new shuffles & certain nanos along with momentum in Macs and prospects for higher accessories & software longer-term," he wrote in a note to clients.
Yes, clearly holiday frenzy buying means longer term sales through 2007 - because people are constantly buying presents and get end-of-year work bonuses every month.
"Also, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple pull up the launch date of its new OSX Leopard in order to pre-empt Microsoft Vista," he told clients.
Totally ridiculous. Apple will let Vista come out fully and fumble around so that 1. Vista will not copy Leopard in 11th-hour final builds/ updates, 2. Apple can develop Leopard to work well with Vista (native or virtualised), 3. Apple has all the time it needs to time Leopard sales into the slower financial quarters of the year. Which may be Jan-Mar 2007 but that seems early. March at the earliest, IMO.
Assuming Apple can maintain its Mac share gains and continue to reinvigorate the iPod line with video, gaming and WiFi-related features.
This guy is gold. "Reinvigorate with WiFi features" -- for squirting purposes, I suppose. Though okay, fair enough, he's just saying, "there might be new iPods". Mmm.... fantastic research, that.
"We continue to believe Apple will launch new products in calendar '07 including cell phones, iTV and even ultraportable devices,"...
Mmm.... "Ultraportable devices" --- like what, Ben? Sounds like you totally pulled that out of your a55.
http://www.piperjaffray.com/
On Aug. 11, 2006, Piper Jaffray completed the sale of its Private Client Service branch network to UBS Financial Services.
FWIW: UBS now owns Piper Jaffrey Private Client Arm. For those that have Piper accounts this is not news, but to this board one should expect to see the UBS name more often.
http://www.piperjaffray.com/
How does this place Gene Munster, he's made a lot of fairly decent reporting for PiperJaffray... ?