“So here we go again. Just when reality finally began to emerge from its shell on Wall Street, and Apple Inc. creeped above $100 a share, the company gets punk’d by Morgan Stanley,” Jim Goldman writes for CNBC.
“While so many other firm’s have been lowering price targets on Apple for weeks, Morgan Stanley analyst Katie Huberty holds the distinction of being the first to take an Apple target below $100,” Goldman writes. “Her $95 target is the first double-digit one on the Street, and it comes at a time when Apple investors finally began to settle into a nice, stable, though small momentum to the upside.”
“Timing is everything. What I can’t understand is why this analyst still carries the influence she does. I don’t know Katie Huberty but I do follow her work. Closely. So do many of you. Andy Zaky has written extensively about Huberty’s track record, missing revenue estimates by almost $1 billion and EPS by 6 cents. Those numbers could almost be forgiven because of the meaningless guidance Apple normally provides. Her estimates on individual business units, however, have been way, way off. She was 700,000 units below iPhone’s performance, 2 million units light on her iPod estimate and 200,000 units under Apple’s Mac number,” Goldman writes.
“This has been detailed extensively. We all know these numbers and her track record. And yet as soon as she publishes, as is the case today, Apple shares nosedive. Nevermind the news, the trends, the fundamentals, research elsewhere,” Goldman writes.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “JES42” for the heads up.]
@Wandering Joe: “Who listens to analysts anyway?”
Apparently, too many people. This goes to show how unrepresentative the stock market has become because it seems to be no longer driven by the companies’ actual performance or direct prospects
(but to give a good estimate of the latter, a deep understanding of the particular company’s technology is essential, a quality that is sorely lacking with those analysts
), but by unconfirmed rumors (another analysts “analysis” doesn’t constitute a confirmation, mind you).
What is needed ASAP (rather yesterday than tomorrow) is a new financial model that supports worthwhile segments in the industry, in particular innovation.
Incidently my friend lost his job at Morgan Stanley a few weeks ago, and he had bought a MacBook that very week. (BTW, he did some work with Apple)
Harsh, but almost funny.
No doubd – Katie Huberty is the most incomptent analisyst ever. And Morgan Stanley are confirmed idiots to pay her.