Analysts delighted with Verizon iPhone

“It’s amazing how much there is to say on the Street this afternoon, given the [Verizon iPhone] news has been in the pipeline for months, and today’s announcement offered few surprises,” Tiernan Ray reports for Barron’s. “Be that as it may, the response is largely positive from analysts, with estimates and price targets going up for Apple even though no pricing has been announced for the wireless plans Verizon will offer.”

• Clyde Montevirgen, Standard & Poor’s: Reiterates a Buy rating on Apple. The deal more than doubles Apple’s U.S. market opportunity. He sees incremental unit sales of 7 million through Verizon in this calendar year, to total 65 million for the year; raised his target price to $420 from $375.
• Maynard Um, UBS: Reiterates a Buy rating on Apple and a $365 price target. He thinks it “makes sense” for Apple to go after other CDMA carriers, including Japan’s KDDI and China’s China Unicom.
• Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray: Reiterates an Overweight rating and a $438 price target. The CDMA phone is “the single biggest lever Apple has to pull in calendar 2011,” he believes.

More analyst reactions, and more details for the three above, here.