“Eyebrows were raised in October 2010 when Daniel Ernst hiked his 12-month Apple (AAPL) price target from $300 a share to $500. But perhaps drawing attention to himself was the point. The senior analyst at Hudson Square Research is now a regular contributor on CNBC and his current price target — $700 — is once again the Street’s highest,” Phillip Elmer-Dewitt reports for Fortune.

“With Apple hitting an intraday high of $497.62 Friday — 0.5% and perhaps a few trading hours from his original target — you might think Ernst had earned bragging rights for making the first $500 per share call,” P.E.D. reports. “But a look at his track record on Apple suggests otherwise. Not only did his Oct. 2010 price target bear no relation to the numbers in his spreadsheet, but of all the analysts who follow the company, his published estimates have proved to be among the worst.”

P.E.D. reports, “Over the past five quarters, his average error on earnings and revenues are second only to Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty for the magnitude of their misses.”

Read more in the full article, with other analysts who might better claim “first” for calling AAPL at $500, here.