Tiernan Ray reports for Barron’s, “Amit Daryanani with RBC Capital Markets reiterates an Outperform rating on Apple shares and a $750 price target, observing, ‘While there will be concerns around future execution given Mr. Forstall’s departure, we note that AAPL has navigated through past turnovers impeccably (Jon Rubentein, Tony Faddell, etc.).’ Daryanani opines Apple will move past “Mapgate” and that the executive team now in place is capable of doing what needs to be done.”
Ray reports, “JP Morgan‘s Mark Moskowitz this morning reiterates an Overweight rating and a $770 price target, writing that ‘There is likely to be a spirited debate in coming days over the potential fall-out’ of the Mapgate ‘debacle,’ ‘but we are encouraged to see CEO Tim Cook making swift decisions and holding decision-makers accountable.'”
MacDailyNews Take: As are we! Go, Tim go!
Ray reports, “Moskowitz thinks Jony Ive’s sticking around is a big relief to investors. Barclays Capital‘s Ben Reitzes thinks Cook is just ‘assembling his team:’ We believe that this move really puts in place ‘Tim Cook’s team’ vs. one he inherited. We are particularly pleased to see increased responsibilities for Jony Ive, arguably the best designer in the world. We continue to believe Apple has a deep bench of talent that can continue to execute in a manner consistent with investor expectations […] While the headlines may raise some concerns about the stability of leadership to investors, we believe that the changes may actually be rather well received by Apple employees and expect Tim Cook to play an active role in making sure the retail operation doesn’t skip a beat.”
“The only really negative voice heard from today is Trip Chowdhry of the boutique research shop Global Equities Research,” Ray reports. “Chowdhry has a fairly dire outlook on Apple, and the shake-up in management, writing that the loss of Forstall is “a major blow to Apple,” opining that Forstall was responsible for the ‘skeuomorphic’ design style that led to things such as the wood-paneled bookshelf of iBooks, which ‘propelled Apple iBookStore ahead of Amazon.com‘s Kindle.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Once a Chowderhead, always a Chowderhead. He can’t even come up with halfway cogent reasons for why Apple and Appel products are or are not successful. Saying that a “wood-paneled bookshelf” is what “propelled Apple iBookStore ahead of Amazon.com‘s Kindle” is the mark of a true idiot. Trip Chowdhry couldn’t analyze his way out of a wet paper bag.
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