Record iPhone Sales Raise Expectations for Apple
(Image courtesy of AppleInsider)Following a whopper of a quarter -- particularly for the iPhone and the iPad -- analysts are now more bullish on Apple than ever before.Apple revealed on Tuesday that its profits increased by nearly 90 percent in the second quarter of 2010, racking up $3.07 billion for the company’s coffers. In the wake of Apple’s best non-holiday quarter ever, analysts are on fire with bullish praise for the company, according to AppleInsider.The most prominent analysts on Wall Street are now predicting that Apple’s stock may go well beyond the $300 per share previously estimated, with RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky increasing his 12-month price target for the company to $350 per share. “After the big run, what’s next?” Abramsky asks in a note to investors. “The big run.”Thanks to surprising international momentum, Abramsky calls Apple’s iPhone sales “stunning,” with total revenue coming in at $5.4 billion, up 127 percent year-over-year. Now the analyst is setting his sights on Apple’s next “cash machine,” the iPad.Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster is only slightly less bullish, forecasting Apple’s stock to hit $323 in the next 12 months on the heels of a new iPhone release expected in June. Munster notes that his earlier estimate of 7.5 million iPhones sold in the March quarter was more aggressive than many others on Wall Street, but Apple managed to exceed that with 8.75 million units sold in the quarter.“Someone needs to explain handset seasonality to Apple,” jokes analyst Yair Reiner with Oppenheimer. “March units should be weaker than the seasonably strong December quarter -- preferably by a good 20-25 percent. March units should never be flat and never ever grow. Break this rule and you’ll leave analysts wondering whether a secular shift is afoot to a radically redefined notion of mobile connectivity.”Across the board, analysts have raised their expectations for Apple’s stock in the wake of Tuesday’s second quarter results, with J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz stating that Apple’s revenue and earnings growth is expected to stay well above 20 percent over the next few years.All great news for Apple and their investors -- but probably not so much for the competition.
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