“Wall Street analysts gave investors in Apple an early Christmas present on Monday: a bundle of upbeat reports that helped send the company’s shares to an all-time high,” Troy Wolverton reports for TheStreet.com. “Apple’s iPod digital music players appear to be a holiday hit, selling out or in short supply at a number of retailers, the analysts noted. That, plus the potential for an even better year next year, led analysts at Deutsche Bank and Piper Jaffray to raise their price targets on Apple’s stock.”
“‘Our checks over the Thanksgiving weekend suggest that demand for iPods and iMacs is strong and that Apple has sufficient supply to meet demand (so far),’ said Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore, who raised his price target on Apple to $79 from $60. ‘We believe Apple is off to a very strong start to the holiday season.’ Apple has been a non-investment-banking client of Deutsche Bank in the last 15 months,” Wolverton reports. “Whitmore raised his estimate on the number of iPods that Apple will sell this quarter from 9.5 million to 11 million. In particular, he predicted that the company would sell more of its high-end video iPods than previously expected; that should help boost the company’s bottom line.”
“Other analysts were bullish on Apple’s iPod sales but were more concerned about whether the company might leave sales on the table this quarter. J.P. Morgan’s Bill Shope, for instance, predicted that Apple would sell more than the 10.8 million iPods that he previously forecast this holiday season. But he noted that Apple’s retail partners were sold out of iPods on the Friday after Thanksgiving,” Wolverton reports. ‘And some analysts were even more concerned. Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, for instance, argued that the Street might be getting ahead of itself on iPod sales. Instead of being a bullish sign, the fact that iPods are sold out at places such as Best Buy is an indicator that Apple is not going to be able to meet demand, he said. Unlike his peers, Munster decided to stand pat with his forecast of 9 million iPods shipped, though he added that Apple might narrowly exceed that number.”
Full article here.
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