Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Piper Jaffray: Use Apple’s Leopard delay as buying opportunity

19 years ago

“With Leopard now shipping in October, Goldman Sachs believes Apple has pushed $25-50 million in revenue out of the June quarter, and roughly $100 million out of the September quarter. While Apple should be able to fully recover the software revenue in the December and March quarters, the delay could also push out some Mac sales as well. This will undoubtedly make Apple even more conservative in setting June-quarter targets on its April 25 earnings call, probably pushing Street estimates closer to their $5.2B in revenue and EPS of $0.65 from current consensus of $5.5B and $0.68,” Notable Calls reports.

“Although the push out of Leopard is not ideal, firm views iPhone as the driver of the next leg to the Apple growth story and this announcement should abate recent concerns about any potential delay in the launch, which they believe is more important to the stock. Today’s announcement and the potential for even more conservative targets for the June quarter could cause some near-term weakness in AAPL shares. Firm would use this as an opportunity to add to positions,” Notable Calls reports.

Notable Calls reports, “Merrill Lynch recommends investors use the current stock weakness related to Apple’s delay of the Leopard operating system as a buying opportunity… Piper Jaffray says that iPhone’s on-time arrival outweighs Leopard delay… While they are not convinced the delay of Leopard is entirely related to getting the iPhone out on time, firm views the shipment of the iPhone as critical, and the timing of Leopard as a non-event.”

Full article here.